NDS Series Episode 1-Scales of Steel
by NinjagoninjaKXGIRL
Summary: With Kai already reaching his dragon potential, Cole is next in line for his Dragon status, but it seems he's pressuring himself too hard for it to happen, he seems rushed to learn. But when the serpentine return to get back at the ninja, and Cole gets separated from his team, can he find a way back before the snakes get to him first?
1. Chapter 1: Dragon Cake & Vengeful Snakes

The cold wind blew through the air, leaving an icy chill to those exposed to it. Pythor shivered as the frigid cold reached him, his breath visible in the thin air, and as he turned to his fellow serpent brethren, he could tell they felt the same. He came to a halt, to realize hiding was useless, "This is pointless! We shouldn't be on our ways back into the underground tombs of Ninjago..."

Skales was the first to speak, "But, Pythor, the air issss to brisssk, to travel back, sssome of usss might not make it! Besssides, if we were to ssstrike them back, they'd have those dragons!"

Pythor took his second-in-commands words to consideration, Skales did have a point, if they really were to return to Ninjago one might catch frostbite and their reinforcements will be numbered, not to mention the ninja could just call upon dragons to blast them back to next Tuesday. Though, the Anocandrai didn't dare have an option of giving up, he turned to his men, a serious look in his magenta eyes, "Well, we're just going to have to make the best of it, because giving up, is not an option."

He turned around and began to slither from where they had came, Skales glanced at the other Serpentine and heaved a sigh, "We've got no choice but to follow the snake king..." The other snakes exchanged weak glances, but did as they were told, upon moving back towards Ninjago.

Kai awoke with a loud yawn, stretching his arms as he heard the call of morning, a Howler Dragon had woken him up. He groaned and got out of bed to look out the window, he saw the others already up and at them, Jay was cooking up breakfast with a lightning dragon, Zane was meditating with an ice dragon, Nya was showing tricks to the fire dragons, Lloyd was being shown around by Andrea, Kai's older sister. He smiled and recalled to two weeks ago, when he had first found them, that was also the time when he reached his Dragon potential and restored the peace, now that Garmadon has fled, as well as the Serpentine, the peace had not stirred since. It was all thanks to Kai, and his teammates, not to mention his sisters, which he so quickly grew fond off, just the other day they were teaching him how to fish in the lake, and he almost had it when he nearly got swallowed whole by an entire Sea Dragon, who so happened to be doing his morning routine of catching food. He also learned how to control his fire more fluently, but he ended up burning some trees and it took a few ice dragons to put them out. All in all, things have gotten good for them, not to mention Sensei decided to land the Bounty high up on top of the Dragon palace, which he could see below from his bedroom window, and they made this place their current home it has seemed.

"Hey, Kai!" Jay cried from below. Kai looked down and smiled at his fellow lightning friend, "What's up Jay?"

"The sky!" Jay threw a pair of roasted sausages in the air, "and these delicacies, heads up!"

Kai eagerly jumped out the window and caught some air, turning into his Dragon form in the blink of an eye, he caught the two sausages in his mouth and swooped down next to Jay, swallowing the meat whole. "Mm, not bad, though I wonder, can you make steak? I've always been fond of that."

Jay thought for a moment then nodded, "Ok! Sure." Kai thanked him and looked around, upon seeing the others, except Sensei and...

He sighed, "Wheres Cole now..."

As for the earth ninja, he was buried deep beneath the sheets of his own bed, obviously in a deep sleep or in the middle of a great dream. Cole awoke in his conscious, looking around at all the land before him, but instead of grassy green, they were all made of ice cream, and the hills were coated with chocolate frosting and whipped cream with bright red cherries on top. The delicious land he saw before him made his mouth water, he smiled and ran excitingly towards the ground, letting himself fall in its icy goodness. He snarfed down whatever he could, with no one to stop him, he had no limits against these delicious ice cream hills, he nearly stuffed himself when he saw..._it_. He dropped the cone he held in his hand and stared at it in awe, it was the most beautiful pastry he had ever seen in his life, the chocolate frosting and strawberry toppings seeming to call out his name, and with each step he took towards it, he couldn't help himself. "CAKE!" he screamed, while running towards the pastry with open arms. Though once he reached close range, the cake seemed to hiss at him, making him fall back. The cake spread a pair of green framed dragons wings and took for the skies, and Cole couldn't help but run after it, "Wait where are you going?! COME BAAACK!"

But he was stopped by a loud noise, someone was calling him, and it echoed through his entire head, the fantasy around him began to fade, and he opened his eyes to face the irritated look of Kai, "COLE, WAKE UP!"

Cole sprang up in his bed, in cold sweat, first, he looked around him to find that it had been a dream, and second he looked at Kai and began to rant, "W-Why'd you wake me up!?" Kai shook his head, "Why wouldn't I? Its like 10:00 in the morning." Cole's eyes shrank, he looked outside to see the others already eating up their breakfast, had he really been out the whole morning? "U-Uh," he began, looking at Kai nervously.

"Yeah. Anyway, come on, Jay made breakfast and I reckon your hungry after all that dreaming," Kai stated. As if on cue, Cole's stomach spoke for itself, the fire ninja smirked, "I take that as a yes."

The meal Jay prepared was not that bad, though it wouldn't have touched everyone as much as Zane's delicacies, it still wasn't that bad at all. "Jay, when did you ever learn to cook?" asked Andrea.

Jay thought while munching on a sausage, "Well, I was only a teenager back then and well-"

"Jay, your _still _a teenager," Lily implied. Jay paused and swallowed, smiling like a goof, "Oh yeah, hehe, my bad. I don't know I guess I just taught myself." The others rolled their eyes, Nya only chuckled, she loved it when Jay made jokes. As for Cole, he only remained silent at the table, eating only a little before dozing off again. It was Zane that finally snapped him back to reality, the team leader glanced around wildly, "H-Huh, wha."

"Cole, your strange behavior it is confusing me an awful a lot, why are you dozing off in the middle of breakfast?" Zane asked. At first, Cole didn't answer, but when Zane kept tapping his cheek over and over so he wouldn't nod off, he just groaned and said, "Alright, alright. Just cut it out." The ninja of ice asked him again and for a moment Cole hesitated, "Well...I don't know, I guess I didn't get much sleep, thanks to SOMEONE." He shot a glare at Kai who was just wolfing down some steak, when he finally looked up to see Cole he was confused, "What?"

Zane of course knew this wasn't the case because for sure he had calculated how much sleep Cole got and it was not less enough for Cole to say that he hadn't slept last night, "Cole, I'm serious, why are you acting this way?" For a long time there was silence between them until Cole finally answered, "I...I just had a weird dream..."

"How so?" the ice ninja asked, intrigued to hear more. Cole began to explain all about the ice cream hills and pastry lands, when he finally got to the part about the dragon cake that only puzzled Zane further. "A Dragon cake?" Cole nodded, Zane thought, "How peculiar..."

"What do you think it means?" Cole asked, and Zane could only think on this one, he heard of other weird dreams as such, like one time, Kai told him he had a dream about giant sand snakes in a sea of sand, Jay once recalled to have a dream on vampires and wolves in broad daylight, but he had never heard one say they had a dream about a cake growing a pair of dragon wings and flying off as their dream began to come to an end. "I sincerely, don't know, perhaps you could ask someone else if they understand?" Zane asked.

Cole glanced around the table and felt suddenly small, who else would know about these things? He wasn't even sure. Though, he didn't expect Andrea to overhear the twos conversation, and so she called out from her side of the table, "Dragon cake?"

Cole instantly began to blush harder then ever before, and everyone that had heard Andrea was now looking at him. Cole hid his face, but only Andrea kept talking, "I think I have an explanation for that."

To this, Cole pushed away his embarrassment and spoke up, "Wait you do?"

"Of course, it means that you're bound to become a dragon soon, just like Kai," Andrea implied. The others looked at him, and now Cole was even more embarrassed, but he couldn't help but think about what she said, he was going to become a dragon, he already knew that from a few days ago, when they had met on the roof at midnight, and the last piece of the prophecy wrote what was to become of him, so, the dream was a sign of this, but one question was clear in his head: when?

The snakes soon came to a clearing and Pythor looked through the clouding mist, once the fog broke away, the land ahead was very visible, some rocky canyons were not far off, just nearly at the horizon where they would find the ninjas at their base. He smiled, "Boys...we've reached land." The other snakes panted as they continued to walk, their feet hurting, but Pythor only lead them on, one thing was clear, he would get back at those ninja, dead or alive, even if it happened to be the last thing he would do.

**(Wooo! I finally managed to write the first chapter, ahh that felt awesome! Also, Cole dreaming of Dragon cake, aww, thats so cute! Also, guys you better watch out, the snakes are coming out to get you! You better watch out! Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this first chapter, and I hope I can make it more interesting for you as the chapters roll in, and the stories continue on, oh well, until next time, happy Saturday, and I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter, thanks for reading! **


	2. Chapter 2: Spending the Night With a Bro

That night, Cole couldn't sleep, nor could he take his mind off dragons for even a second, he wondered what it would be like, soaring in the skies, surely it wouldn't be that...good, right? He tossed and turned in his bed, hoping to distract himself with a dream, but of course his thoughts affected his imagination, and he got the same result. He awoke right after he caught a glimpse of a flying scythe that was nearly at the verge of slicing him to bits, Cole pulled on his dark bangs and kicked the air in frustration, then he saw a shadow of light coming from outside.

His mind broke free of his current situation and he peeked outside to see, what he saw intrigued him, a herd of fire dragons being led to the highest peek of the island, and were all being led by...Kai? Cole side-glanced to the fire ninja's bed to find it empty, how had Kai gone out without him noticing? Maybe he was in a deep sleep...

Right now that didn't matter, he wanted to find out what Kai was doing outside, leading a hoard of dragons to the edge of the island, so silently he climbed out of bed and slipped out of the room as fast as the eye can see. Once reaching the deck, Cole looked back and it seems the herd had disappeared. _I cant lose them now _he thought. He jumped off the deck and made his way down from the dragon palace below them, landing on both his feet on the solid ground. His eyes picked up a small light in the distance, this being Kai emitting flames from his hands, using the light to lead the herd off to who knows where, but Cole was only thankful that his fiery friend didn't decide to snuff out the light. He followed them according to the flame, and stayed his distance, he didn't want to scare the dragons off, and even more, he did not want to irritate Kai with his nosy tactics. So, to make sure he wasn't caught he traveled quietly behind them, and if a dragon were to take a look behind, he would simply jump into a nearby shrub.

Thankfully, he had followed them til they had stopped at the edge, and he had not been caught from snooping around. Cole sighed a relief and watched through the bushes, his eyes taking everything. Kai lined the dragons up and they spread their wings for takeoff, they then took to the skies, making a sort of, migration formation, heading out towards the horizon. Once the dragons all left, Kai let the flames from his palm die off, and he sat at the edge of the cliff watching the dragons leave. Cole poked his head out to see, but gravity pulled him to the ground, upon some twigs and leaves, making an awful lot of sound. Kai peered behind him to see him, his eyebrows raised, "Cole? What are you doing out here?"

Cole picked himself up and brushed off any leaves and twigs that got stuck on him, and his hair and chuckled nervously, "Uh...well, I was about to ask you the same thing..."

The fire ninja smiled, "Come here." Cole sat himself beside the fire ninja, letting his legs hang on the edge, he gazed down to see the long way to the sea, crashing against the rocks. He gulped, Kai noticed, "and you say _I'm _the one afraid of heights."

The earth ninja crossed his arms, "Well, not anymore since you can fly." Kai chuckled, "Yeah...I learned to overcame it. So what, your afraid too? Or are you just trying to call attention to yourself?"

"W-What?! No, no, I'm not afraid," Cole sputtered, turning red. Kai shook his head, "Alright, just wondering." There was a long period of silence between them, only the wind broke through the quiet sounds of the night. It was until then, Cole decided to talk, "So...why are you out here?"

Kai's smile faded, he looked after the soaring dragons in the distance, watching them disappear over the horizon, he let out a sigh, "Because I'm remembering..."

Cole seemed puzzled, he stopped himself to ask, not wanting to make Kai feel any worse, but he was curious, "R-Remembering what?"

Kai avoided his gaze, letting a tear escape his eyes, he shook as he spoke, "I'm remembering..._her_..." Before the earth ninja could ask who, a pang of realization hit him, and he soon knew who Kai was referring to. He looked at Kai in melancholy, as the fire ninja hid his face to silently cry, Cole felt so, very sorry for him, he wished there was something he could do. He stared out to the sky, the moon shone through the sea of stars, the indigo color signalling a late night, they had been out here for almost a few minutes to reach an hour. Kai tried not to shed tears, but Cole could tell it was hard for him, so he put a hand on his friends shoulder, Kai looked his way, finally, his eyes a little red. "I'm so, sorry, I cant describe how much sorrow I feel for you, it looked like you and Inferna were very close," he spoke.

Kai sniffled and wiped away a few tears from his eyes, "We only had three days...together...but yes...we were close."

Cole frowned, he noticed Kai was trying to look away from showing tears, and he understood that, he wouldn't want anybody watching him cry, and the thought of anyone worrying about him just tensed his entire body. But right now, he could tell Kai needed him, so he stuck around, he wrapped one arm around Kai's shoulder, and Kai only stood still. "You know, this stuff, happens to a lot of individuals, and most of the time, they die young, but Inferna, happened to live longer before her time had come, so she's lucky to experience the wonders of life, including meeting you," he stated, trying to find the right words. Kai looked at him, a little flushed, and for a second, Cole thought he might break down into tears. But thankfully, Kai didn't he only smiled weakly and nodded simply, "Yeah...I guess you have a point..."

Cole smiled back, glad he didn't make Kai feel worse, and the two looked back out towards the night sky. "That wasn't...the only reason...I was out here, though," Kai began.

"What was the other reason?" Cole questioned.

Kai pointed to where the rest of the fire dragons had flown off to, "I was helping the fire dragons migrate, so they could lay their eggs." Cole raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Oh, wont that be something."

"Yeah," Kai chuckled, "soon enough, they'll return with a batch of newborns, they'll be cute small dragons, a new generation begins."

Cole laughed, "Oh yeah, soon enough the island will be overrun with them, running around flying, might rename this place to a dragon daycare." Kai laughed, slapping Cole on the back playfully, and one would find it hard to believe just a second ago, he was crying. Cole smiled, happy that Kai had finally cheered up, still the thoughts of being a dragon started to come back to him, and so he asked, "By the way...flying...whats it like?"

Kai smirked, "Oh, you'll love it, its a sensation to _die _for. Soon enough you'll be soaring the skies, wanting to do it everyday, just you wait and see." Cole chuckled, then let it die out, a thought of concern dawning on him, what if he _never _reached his dragon status? What if he was the one left behind? He couldn't help but worry, but he didn't dare tell Kai, he didn't want to burden others with his problems, especially with something such as this. So instead, he stayed quiet, laughing along with Kai as the night went by, letting go of his current worries, just like that.

**(Oh my gosh I'm so sorry guys, I had a family meeting this afternoon and of course I couldn't take my laptop! So, yeah, heres the second chapter, a little (kind of but not really) lavashipping for ya, for all of you gayshippers out there whos bound to scream it out anyway, oh well, anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this one, I put all effort into it as you can tell, and next chapter, we'll have a little more time with the vengeful snakes, and what their plan might be? All in all, I hope you enjoyed, until next time, have a Splendid Sunday, and good luck tomorrow at school, thanks for reading!) **


	3. Chapter 3: The Plan

"Bah! Any sssign of anything?"

A Venomari scout looked out from the snakes hiding place in a small cave just above the canyon, the scenery around him looked deserted, no sign of anything yet. "No, nothing," he hissed. His partner growled, "We're never going to get any food for the otherssss if we ssstick around here! Itsss like a desssert!"

"Dessssert?" the second venomari chimed, his mouth watering. The first venomari slapped his own forehead, "NO YOU IDIOT! DESSSSERT, AS IN A LONELY, BARREN WASSSTELAND!"

"Oh," his partner winced, feeling stupid now. The first one shook his head and glanced outside, his beady eyes scanning the area for anything that could prove to be a descent meal. "Ssstupid, conditionsss, we have to move," he whispered to his comrade.

The other shook his head, "B-But, Pythor sssaid to-"

"Do you want to ssstarve, Ssspitta?!" the first venomari shouted. The second venomari troop, Spitta, shook his head quickly, the venomari scout grumbled, "Good. Ssso jusst shut up, and follow me."

The two exited the cave once the cost was clear, well, it was already, so they didn't need much of checking, as they were slipping away from their hiding spot, they heard a screech from overhead, they stopped dead in their tracks to see a fire dragon, soaring in the sky. The two scrambled to take out some bow and arrows, Spitta was rambling for some amo, while the scout kept shouting angrily, "SHOOT IT! SHOOT IIIIIT!"

Spitta shook and aimed, he missed just inches from clipping the dragons wing, however, it was enough to catch its attention. The two gulped, as an angry fire dragon let out a piercing roar and headed straight for them. "AHHHH!" they screamed, holding each other. But inches away from clawing them to bits, the dragon was shot down, impaled by a fine arrow straight in the heart, it cried and spiraled down towards the ground beside them, landing dead. The two venomari looked, still scared if it will move, it was until then they realized they were hugging that they parted in disgust. "Fools!" the voice was so stern and clear, the two troops jumped, Pythor slithered towards them, a crossbow in hand, signalling he had shot that arrow, however his face was filled with irritation and pure impatience. "Leaving on the job? Shame on you both for being lousy hunters," he insulted, the two only walked shamefully back to their cave. Soon enough, some Mezmo's came out to fry the impaled dragon for dinner, while the generals all stood inside to wait. Pythor however, was pacing around in concentration, obviously frustrated, it was until then Fangtom broke the silence, "What is-" "Wrong, Pythor?" his second head finished for him.

The Anocandrai turned to face his fellow serpentine brethren, his almond-shaped eyes narrowing, the firelight shadowing his stern expression. "Cant you see? We're wasting time hiding! We could've taken down the whole ninja team by now! But no, all we're doing so far is hunt, and hide!"

"We'll ssstrike when the time is right, Pythor, we cant jusst ssstrike when we feel like it," Acidicus explained. "When will that be?! We've already spent the rest of our lives underground, we cant just sit around and wait for ourselves to become old! I say we strike now, they wont suspect anything if we're unpredictable, don't you agree?"

The venomari general sighed and went to see how the cooking was coming along, Pythor only grumbled to himself, Skales caught a few words, such as ignorant and stupid. The general swallowed, "Pythor, we underssstand your desssires to bring down our foess, but wouldn't it be better if we lured them into a trap inssstead of jussst making their jobsss easssier by coming to them?"

Pythor paused, analyzing Skales's plan in his head, a wicked smile curled at the edges of his mouth, "Why...yes! Brilliant! We shall use that as a plan..."

Pythor began to think more, Skalidor and Fangtom only faced Skales and gave him a look that said _are you nuts_? "Trusst me, thisss is bound to keep him sssane enough until we can figure out a way to actually get back at the ninja, likewise, I don't really think he'd care, he's gone half-crazy trying to think up a good ssscheme," Skales explained.

"You do realize," Fangtom's first head began. "That you only fueled his crazy ambitionsss?" his second head finished. Skales chuckled, "Its only temporary, just play along, we don't want him going crazy now don't we?" The two generals immediately shook their heads at the thought, making the Hynobrai general smile, "Good."

Pythor soon turned his attention back to them, "So, I've decided, tomorrow we shall cause some trouble in the near villages, and there forth, our men shall set a trap to capture all of the ninja, and we'll all decide what to do with them, soon enough, either way, the team will become utterly useless, and there will be no hope for the people, soon, Ninjago shall be ours! AGAIN! HAHHAHHHAHAHA!"

The other generals only stared at Pythor with anxious eyes, Acidicus entered with some dragon meat, but once he heard Pythor's crazed laughter he immediately left the scene. "Too late, he's gone nutsss," Skalidor hissed. The four generals could only hope nothing worse happened later on...boy were they wrong.

**(Golly! Pythor's gone mad! Let's see what happens tomorrow, when his plan fails! Skales, you dummie, don't fuel his craziness, or you might end up on his wall! Oh well, we can only hope the other tribes will better themselves by then enough to really withstand Pythor's madness, but will they themselves become like him? Its only "temporary", (see what I did there X3) anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed some time with the Serpentine, and laughed a bit at some of Pythor's beginning of madness, but NOOO ONE OF THE FIRE DRAGONS DIED QAQ CURSE YOU SERPENTINE DX. (Sniff) Kai'll be pissed when he finds out! Until then however, have a Mongram Monday, and I hope you all enjoyed this, thanks for reading!) **


	4. Chapter 4: Escaping Capture

Andrea flew back to Destiny's Bounty, groceries in tow, she'd been sent out to fetch some food to restock the fridge, due to everyone's starvation. The girl arrived in the nick of time, just between 9:00 and 10:00, upon seeing her enter, the others cheered. "Finally," Kai groaned, clutching his growling stomach.

Andrea smiled and set down the food, "Here you go, eat up guys." They didn't even need to be asked twice, all of them (including Lloyd) ripped open the bags and began to wolf down as many food as they could, Andrea only watched in bewilderment. "You guys have such horrid manners," Lily stated in disgust. "Well, excuse mhe dhor starvhing!" Jay said through a mouthful of food, Lily only glared and went back to reading her book. Although everyone was here, one seemed to be missing, according to Andrea's sharp eyes, Cole was not present. Not wanting to interrupt the guys in the middle of their "food fest", she walked over to her sister to ask, "Hey, sis, where might Cole be?"

Lily pointed out the door, "He left just moments after you did, said he'd be back by the time you were, but it seems he's lost track of time." Andrea narrowed her eyes and looked out the door, if Cole were to leave and went somewhere else on the island, surely she would've seen it upon returning, meaning Cole had went off somewhere off the island. "Where exactly did he say he was headed?" she asked.

"I heard him say something about visiting a library in Ninjago, perhaps you should head there," Lily responded, her eyes never leaving her current page. Before Andrea could ask for more, Lily had gotten lost in her story, the universe ninja only humphed and went out in search of the delayed earth ninja. Andrea finally flew over the horizon, the gateway towards Ninjago, the mountains only seemed like hills from how high she was, and any animal or person would only appear to be a dot from any average person's view, but not to her. Eyes alike an eagles, she could see clearly from any distance, and in an instant she was able to spot Ninjago's library. Landing quietly in front of the village she turned back to herself, her clothes changed though, to a plain shirt and some jeans, she seemed like any other normal person, nothing strange. Finally she came to the library, and Cole's scent definitely was stronger here. _Just where I'll find him _she thought. Upon entering, she noticed that the library itself was almost deserted, the shelves that were stocked with books had begun to collect handfuls of dust, signalling they hadn't been touched in ages. _All but my clever sister wouldn't come here, well, besides Cole...but why? _she pondered.

Andrea scanned the entire place, the librarian seemed to be absent, perhaps on break, or maybe just bored, she would've been with such low business, she wouldn't stick around for long, even though she did love to learn herself. Now finding Cole would've prove to have been a problem, considering the library was huge, but his mumbling gave him away. "Dragons, dragons, where are the dragons," he muttered from afar. _Dragons? _Andrea thought. _Oh but of course, everything made much sense now, why Cole would be here so early, he wanted to find out about them so he could find a way to reach his dragon status,_ _man he really is desperate isn't he? _

So, quietly, attempting to spook him, she crept up behind him silent as a mouse, and cleared her throat. Cole jumped, startled and dropped the book he was checking, whipping around quickly to see her almost laughing, and seeing his face only made her want to laugh more. "W-W...What are you doing here?" he whispered sharply.

"Well, I was wondering where you went, also you promised you'd be back when I was, looks like you didn't keep that promise now did you?" Andrea stated, crossing her arms. Cole instantly turned red with embarrassment, scratching the back of his head, "Oh...sorry...guess I lost track of time, didn't I?"

Andrea nodded, "Yeah seems like."

Cole chuckled and went back to look through books, but he looked over his shoulder every time just to make sure Andrea didn't leave, Andrea only reached forward and made him put down a book he had picked up. "You know you could just ask me how to reach it, right?" Cole put the book back and just stared at her nervously, he felt his face burn with blush, and Andrea could see he felt nervous, "Have you been avoiding me out of the cause of embarrassment?"

"W-What? N-N-No, who told you that, that's not true, why w-would I," Cole said all at once. Andrea chuckled and touched his nose as a joking gesture, her eyes twinkling, "Cole, Cole, Cole, books don't have the answer for these types of things, even if they wrote about it it still wouldn't teach you everything."

"How so? I mean, they were made for a reason weren't they?" Cole said, almost sounding like a smartass. Andrea frowned at his statement, telling him to shut up, she sighed, "Well for one thing, you could've just asked me. Come on." Before Cole knew it, she was taking him by the hand and leading him towards the front doors of the library. They sat on the front steps and that's when Andrea began to start her lecture, "First off, you have to let it happen naturally, you cant just force it to come out of you, such as Kai did, he became one with his element, forgetting about his inner shame, which then led to a sudden spark in his systems, which then lead to his Dragon Potential. Now, that's not all, first you have to relax yourself, make sure your mind is at a clear state, any worry or stress could interfere with the transformation, got it?" Cole nodded, as he listened to every word, intrigued. Andrea smiled, "Good, now becoming one with your element is one way you can find reach your dragon status, there are a few of many other ways you can, some of which connect to your true potential, which I believe you've already unlocked, am I right?"

"Yeah," Cole responded, nodding. "Well, the same thing can happen while reaching your dragon status, while facing obstacles along the way of your ninja training, your heart is still the key, so think about that, and you just might find yourself becoming one of they very most amazing creatures in all of Ninjago," Andrea uttered.

"You," Cole sighed dreamily, almost in a whisper, but realized that wasn't it, "I mean, a Dragon, yeah."

Andrea chuckled, but the moment soon ended when they heard some commotion coming from the farther end of the village. The two immediately got to their feet at the sight of many villagers running from what seemed to be dozens of snake warriors. "Serpentine," Cole cursed. Andrea took out her Kunai Daggers, and Cole drew out his scythe, the two nodded at each other and ran forth to fight. The snakes were surprised at the two, but soon took out their weapons as well, the battle began. Andrea lashed out at a group of four snakes, and in just a blink of an eye, they were on the ground in pain. Cole struck his Scythe of Quakes into the ground, the earth shook, forming a large ditch, two snakes fell in, and their screams echoed throughout the bottomless pit. "Nice work, rocky," Andrea called. Cole smiled, but didn't look back in time to avoid getting socked in the head by a serpentine's fist, he winced and turned around to face his foe, only to find it gone. The snake happened to slip away, appearing in the distance, Cole growled and chased after it, his scythe ready to cut. Andrea however spotted him, she gasped and took care of the snake she was battling and ran after him in an instant.

"Come and get me, ninja!" hissed the snake, teasing Cole. The earth ninja's anger was only stoked further, and his fury blinded him from the danger ahead, a deep and large gorge. Andrea spotted the danger quickly and came to a halt, Cole was headed straight for a trap! "Cole! Stop! Its a trap!" But he was warned too late, the earth ninja had so blindly ran straight over the gorge, and he lately realized. "Uh oh," he muttered in a wince. He fell, straight into a net two serpentine had been holding, Cole struggled against the ropes, and this only brought some frightened faces to the two serpentine. "Just one?!" one shrieked.

"Oh, Pythorsss bound to kill usss! We have to trap all of them!" hissed the second, and he began to untie the net, however the first one leaped forward grasping tightly to the reins of the net, unfortunately for Cole, and looked at his partner as if he were insane, "You idiot! We cant let him loossse! He'll warn the othersss!"

"Oh," the second muttered, "then what do we do with him?"

"We'll hold onto him, maybe we can ussse him as bait for the othersss, now bring him back to the camp and make sure Pythor doesssn't ssssee! Your sssstupidity issss bound to get ussss killed!" hissed the first. The second was tossed the net, and so he began to head away towards their camp, the first peered upward to see the face of Andrea, who was looking down into the gorge to see if she could spot Cole, this only brought a smile to the snakes face, "Pythor will be pleasssed."

As for the anxious universe ninja, she scanned the entire bottom of the gorge, and caught no sight of the earth ninja, or the snake that had took him. "COLE!" she screamed in worry. Her voice echoed throughout the pit, and was heard by Cole, who only gasped, struggling more, and thanks to the snakes careless holding, he managed to gain himself freedom. The snake yelped, and before he knew it he was under Cole's mercy, as the earth ninja brought down his scythe upon his head. The snake, now cut in half, fell to the rocky ground, scarlet blood spreading around his corpse. Cole stared in disgust, wiping the blood off the blade of his scythe, he was just about to head towards the scream when he noticed, he didn't know where he was. As he peered at his surroundings, everything looked the same, yet he didn't have any idea what part of the pit he was in, he was lost. "Shit," he groaned, how was he supposed to return now. Either way, he had to move, that other snake was bound to return sometime, so he only moved forward, and could only hope Andrea hadn't been caught.

It so happens she didn't thankfully, the first snake that he saw before had climbed up the wall only to find her not present, but before he had time to search she appeared right behind him, stabbing her dagger into his chest, sending him on a highway to hell. "Bastard," she spat, letting him fall onto the dirt. Just soon enough, she heard the sound of wings flapping, she turned to see her brother flying towards her in his dragon form, with Jay and Zane on his back. He landed and let them climb off before he could turn back, and his face was full of concern, "Where have you been?! Wheres Cole?!"

Andrea nearly cried, but held back her grief, she hesitated but instantly blurt it out, "He's...he's been taken."

"WHAT?!" they all shouted.

"B-By, by who?!" Jay screamed.

"Just as you would think...Serpentine," Andrea replied coldly.

**(Oh shit, looks like the ninja are going to be on a wild goose chase trying to find Cole in that long, twisting gorge, its sort of like the Caves of Despair except its more treacherous, and what are the snakes going to do now that their plan has failed? Hows Pythor going to react to this? Find out tomorrow in the next chapter, (if I'm not lazy enough to write it poorly!) but yeah, you get the idea ^^. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I put all my effort into it considering the fact that I came back at 7:50, phew! What a finger workout, well, looks like I'll have to end it here, but maybe tomorrow I'll try to make the action last, until next time, have a Terrific Tuesday, and thanks for reading this chapter)**


	5. Chapter 5: Sticky Situations

It was not a good time to be Skales.

The sun was already beginning to set, ready to welcome the rising of the moon, and the Hypnobrai general had already been suspecting two of his tribe warriors to have returned with all of the ninja in capture. _Where are they? Nighttime is edging closer, and those two had not returned with the ninja in hand, Pythor will be most displeased... _

What he thought was true, if the plan Skales had whipped up failed, surely, the Anocandrai would have him and all the other tribe generals for a round of beheading, and to him, that did not sound oh so pleasant. However, he couldn't just suspect his men had failed, even though his plan had only been used to keep Pythor sane so he wouldn't lose his head, so far the Anocandrai bought it and now believed that the plan had been in order. But then a horrifying thought struck him, what if Pythor finally figured out the plan was a fake? What if he regained his sanity long enough to fully acknowledge that Skales plan had been used to stall him so that he wouldn't take out his failure on them as a reason to rid them? Surely the Anocandrai would make them all pay dearly for tricking him, no doubt whatsover. _Though, I shouldn't be doubtful _thought Skales, finally regaining his little bit of hope. _Perhaps my men are returning now with our hostages, it wont be long now I assume. _

Unfortunately for him, that was not the case, for it so happened, Cole was now rushing to figure a way out of the treacherous gorge, spending the whole day choosing twisty paths and puzzling turns, and still managing to find himself in the same place he's already been in. He growled in frustration, then took a deep breath, he knew this wouldn't be easy, even if he so wished to get out as soon as possible and return to Dragon Island by dark. In times like this, Cole had wished to fly, but he couldn't find himself to think about that now, he got here the easy, which was by being lured and thrown into the gorge, there wasn't a chance he'd get out the same way. "Just my luck," he muttered quietly, his voice lost through the sounds of the night. The moon shone bright in the night sky, the stars being silhouetted by its radiant glow, and this was a sign for Cole that he better move along fast, just in case there were more Serpentine around. So he got to walking, even though his feet hurt and his whole body felt tired, he couldn't rest now, there was no option he had to move.

When Skales finally realized his men had not returned, he slithered back to the cave, worry plaguing his mind.

**(I apologize for the short chapter, its just I haven't had time to quite think it through, but I promise tomorrow I'll be sure to write you guys a long chapter, its just today I have to assist my little brother in writing and its kind of hard for him considering he's in third grade, so I just hope this was enough to feed your brains. Anyway, it looks like Cole's going to be lost in that gorge for quite some time, however, the question still remains: who will get to him first? The Serpentine? Or his friends? We can only inference, and I'll try to make it sensible for you guys to keep on with the story as it goes into progress. Now Skales is in a bit of a pickle as well, he not only is worried the plan will fail, he's also worried that Pythor will soon figure out the plan was fake, which only fooled him due to his almost insanity. Now this is all I have, I hope its interesting enough for you guys to keep reading, oh well, until next time, have a Wild Wednesday, and thanks for reading ^^)**


	6. Chapter 6: A Terrible, Unlucky Day

The sun rose high over Ninjago sky, and the land awoke at under its bask of light. Cole had been walking for twenty four hours and he still hadn't stopped. His feet were bleeding, and he was forced to sit down due to weariness, he squinted high at the sun to see that it was the start of another day, he groaned, "M-Morning..."

After a short rest he got back onto his feet again, even if his body refused, he couldn't dare to rest now, he still needed to find a way out of here, to ensure the others are alright, he was doing this for their safety and because they were probably worried about his absence. So he trudged on, his legs feeling like lead, and he hadn't even noticed that his stomach was hurting a lot, he hadn't eaten breakfast, lunch, dinner, or supper the day before, and now his insides felt as if they hated him. "G-Grghh," he moaned, leaning himself against the stone wall, he panted and looked up to the clear blue sky above him, he then glanced in front of him, the stone wall didn't look too steep, maybe he could climb his way out. With steady hands, the young man gripped on a firm part of the wall and used it to hook himself upward, planting his foot on another part of the wall and so-forth.

Once he reached the surface, he placed his arm over the edge, and let out a sigh of relief, smiling weakly. "Grgrhrh." He froze at the sound, he looked beside him to see the face of a badger, and it didn't look happy. "GRRGR!" it lurched itself towards him and scratched him in the face. "AH!" Cole lost grip on the edge and fell backwards, his screams echoing throughout the pit. He so painfully hit a few rough edges on the way down, and once he finally landed with a loud thud, he could slowly climb to hit feet in agony. "O-Ow," he winced. Rubbing his face, he pulled his hand away to reveal blood, the scratch left some nasty cuts upon his cheek, it hurt a lot. "Fucking, badger," Cole cursed, glaring up to see its furry face peer over the edge of the gorge in its curiousness. He grumbled and continued on, finally ignoring his hunger, but he knew as the day went by, things were only going to get _worse_.

So they had, as Cole tried to search for some food, he tried looking under a boulder for maybe something dead that he could cook with a fire, but found it to be a nest for spiders. "AH!" he screamed, dropping the boulder right on his foot, he let out a loud cry of pain and began to hobble around on one foot, yelping. He tried again a few moments later when he caught sight of an Iguana that looked tender enough to eat, he ran to it hungry, but didn't seem to look where he was going until he ran into a solid log which so happened to be a house of a larger creature: a Mountain Wolf. Cole gulped and ran at the sight of its baring sharp teeth and monstrous claws, it was confirmed he wouldn't be allowed lunch that evening. Cole tried making a fire after he found a nice lighting spot and some dry twigs while walking, using a stone as a flint, he immediately struck a flame on the two pieces of wood. "Yes!" he cheered. Thunder boomed and it began to pour, the rain snuffing out his fire, Cole slammed his head against the wall in anger. Then was the when he tried to look for shelter, now it may be quite hard to find shelter even without rain, but unfortunately, Cole wasn't so lucky.

Lightning flashed through the sky, making him jump, he then began to run through the rain, avoiding how soaked he was getting. He eventually spotted a small cavern far off from him and went forth towards it, he ran in and made himself comfortable, but as he saw down, his roof left him, _literary_. The small cave was nothing more than a Rock Beast blending in, it soon walked off from the scene, off to dwell somewhere else. Cole groaned which turned into a frustrated growl, all day he's been trying hard to keep his cool, but with conditions like these, it was hard enough for people even like Zane couldn't handle. "WHY DOES THIS PLACE HATE ME?!" he screamed, throwing a rock at a figure in the distance. To his shock however, he found it to be the same Mountain Wolf, and he looked even more aggressive then before. "Me and my stupid aim," he muttered, breaking into a run, as the wolf began to chase after him, snapping his jaws ready to bite.

Soon enough, the rain died down, and the blue sky had faded away to turn navy blue, a sea of stars signalling night had fallen. Cole huffed, as he finally escaped the wolf, who seemed to have gotten lost himself through the gorge, Cole spotted some ground high enough, so when the wolf found him, he wouldn't be able to reach him. Cole climbed the best he could and finally reached it, and to his final luck, he saw that a cavern, a _real _cavern was perched against the wall. Eagerly he ran inside, and laid himself on the ground as the soft sounds of the night began around him. He looked out towards the night sky, what a really awful, unlucky day this was for him, and as he laid himself to sleep, he hoped tomorrow, would be not the same as today. _God forbid, I wonder how the others are doing... _he thought.

Soon enough, the sounds outside welcomed him into a world of peaceful world of dreaming.

**(My goodness! I feel bad for Cole for his unfortunate bad luck! Its pretty easy to screw up when your already trapped in a slightly deserted pit, so I decided to humor you guys with some old fashion comedy relief, and woohoo! The chapter was long! I hope it was though, to meet your standards, but what do I know? Oh well, I just well as hope you guys enjoyed this, and next chapter will be filled with some worried friends, until next time, I wish you all a Thriller Thursday, and thanks for reading!) **


	7. Chapter 7: Anxious and Discovery

Kai and the others gathered around in front of the grand palace, the dragons ready to take flight. Kai stepped up, beside his sister, Andrea, who looked anxious. "Alright, we've gathered round today for one very important reason...Cole. He was lured a few days back by the Serpentine, but it seems the plan backfired leaving him stranded in a deep and dark ditch, which is why I am sending out five groups of dragons to search for him down there, mostly of Earth, the rest will scan around for any Serpentine activity, as for us, we'll do the best we can to get our leader back here well and safe...are we ready?" Kai stated, enthusiastic.

The others nodded back at him, Kai rubbed his hands together, "Alright, lets move out!"

The Earth Dragons gave a loud, piercing roar and took for the skies, on their ways towards Ninjago, once reaching land, they burrowed deep beneath the ground. As for the rest of the dragons, they spread their wings and headed the same direction, in search for any mischievous snakes. Jay, Zane, Lily, Kai, and Andrea all hitched a ride on some Dragons as well, Lloyd wanted to come but Sensei made sure the boy stayed put. As Andrea rode on top of a dragon of darkness, the wind whipped her face, but she ignored the chill as a dark thought crept her mind. _Its been long enough...has Cole managed to keep himself alive down there? I doubt there's any food sources down there...I hope he's ok... _Kai, who was just soaring high above her, managed to notice her grim expression. "Hey, you ok?" he asked, in concern.

Andrea hesitated, not responding, she really didn't want to talk about her feelings, even if it was her brother. Kai however, took this as more reason to be worried and flopped down in his human form behind her, the dragon jostled as he landed but soon went back to course. Andrea hid her face as Kai asked again, "Sis, whats wrong?"

To this, she couldn't deny his question, her thoughts coming back to her, she sighed deeply and spoke, "I'm just...a bit, worried..."

Kai raised an eyebrow, confused, making Andrea have to clarify herself, "About Cole."

The fire ninja put a finger to his chin in puzzlement, Andrea groaned, "Look, he could get himself killed down there, or perhaps he might starve to death, you get my point?" Kai thought for a moment, he then smirked simply and chuckled, "Yes I do." Andrea narrowed her eyes at him, looking at him as if he had two heads, "What are you implying?"

Kai smiled kind of creepily, "You care about Cole, don't you sis?"

Andrea was insulted, she looked at Kai in bitter disgust, "W-What?!" Their dragon shook at her shouts, Kai even nearly jumped himself but retained his balance, but still, upon looking at his sisters face he could tell she was not amused. "I don't, I don't-not like that!" she sputtered, all of a sudden. Kai tried hard not to smile, but soon managed to refuse once Andrea pulled on a serious face, "I don't like him, moron...crazy..."

There was silence between them, and only the sound of the calm wind could be heard through the cold winter air, until Andrea decided to let go of her anger, she couldn't let her short-temper get the best of her, so she let her head drop, her eyebrows furrowed sadly. "Sorry," she muttered, "Its just...I could've helped him out, if it weren't for those snakes...I'm just...a bit worried about him, he's a friend...just a friend...nothing more..." Andrea looked down, her face dark and grim, Kai couldn't help but frown, he felt bad for pulling that up, he only said that to be a joke because it sounded more like they were close, turns out it was a big mistake. He put a hand on her shoulder, making her turn towards him at last, and she could see him exchange a weak smile. "I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have said that...its just I thought you two were close, turns out your just friends, huh...heh, oh well, but its alright to worry about him, I'm pretty anxious myself, but hey, Coles a tough guy, believe me, he'll pull through you'll see," Kai reassured.

That made Andrea relax, and she too exchanged a smile, her worry melting away in an instant. "Thanks, Kai...I needed that," she uttered. Kai found himself to smirk again, but they were both snapped back into reality by the call of Jay. "HEY!" he shouted. The two quickly turned towards the lightning ninja, who was on top of a Lightning Dragon, he looked dead serious, for once. "You've got to see this," he told them.

They swooped in for a landing right below them, Jay ran back to where he saw it, and soon enough he was able to show them all what it was. Everyone looked in shock at the scene, ahead they saw a group of Serpentine, at the edge of a gorge, they seemed to be muttering things. They all tried to hear in on their conversation, and managed to catch a few words...

The first scout was grumbling, "Pythor will surely be mad at thissss."

The second, a warrior, only humphed and looked down into the deep, dark gorge, "I agree...just yessssterday, thosssse two Mezmo'ssss were found dead, and it only sssseemssss one of the ninja had been lured into the trap, Skales doessssn't know what to do."

In an instant, the ninja knew they were talking about Cole. They continued listening, the first serpentine only walked away, coming to a halt, crossing his arms looking up at the sky in seriousness, "Sure he would be, who doesss he think Pythor isss, an idiot? Whatever, we've got to make sure the old sssnake doessn't behead us all."

"How do you sssusspect we do that, we couldn't posssibly ssstop death," hissed the warrior. The first serpentine looked back at him, "What do you think, idiot? We're going to go after the ninja oursssselves, then Pythor will decide what hisss fate will be."

The others gasped. The scout cracked a wicked smile, agreeing with his comrade, "Ohoohoo, I like the idea, but letss make sure itsss not a fake, like what Skales came up with, hehe." The warrior frowned, "Don't joke around, now letsss move, ninjasss are known for their ssspeed." The others watched as the two sneaks disappeared into the ditch, no doubt in search for Cole. As soon as they knew they were gone, they discussed. "Oh god, their going after Cole?!" Jay shrieked in panic.

"What were they speaking of, a plan of Skales being a fake?" Andrea pondered. Kai thought about that too, but he knew there was no point to speak of it now, their time was limited thanks to those two snakes, and if Skales or any other of the generals found out about Cole being in the ditch, they might become a threat as well. "Alright," he turned to the group of dragons, "all of you, fly alongside the others in search of any serpentine, we cant afford to have them beat us to Cole, so I'm counting on you to delay them as best you can, can you that?" The creatures nodded their heads and flew off individually, he then turned to the people in front of him, "As for us, we have to follow those two serpentine into the ditch, for Coles sake, if they get to him, who knows what fate will have in store for him? So we cant waste time, so you guys ready to go underground?"

They all smiled, Kai looked at Andrea, and she looked much ready as ever. The fire ninja smiled, "Let's go find Cole."

**(Ahhh, finally! The seventh chapter is done! I REALLY had some time to think about this one, and I think this one came out great! So yeah, its finally Friday! WOOHOO! The weekend is finally here, time to party! X3 Anyway, it seems Andrea is having some concerns about Cole and his survival, (don't show her the last chapter) and Kai seems to believe their close, but she state their just friends...OR ARE THEY OUO. Suspense is killer as they say, and I cant refuse to that, but its true! I'll make sure the next chapter will fill you in on some suspense, but also it will be filled with some comical relief, like chapter 6, (some of you might've enjoyed that) and some of you might've felt sorry for Cole! I would feel sorry for him, I mean he nearly got eaten and he hasn't even eaten himself! God Mother Nature (Or Gaea for you PJO, and HOO fans), don't be so hard on Cole! Anyway, until next time, I hope you all have a FABULOUS Friday! (Pewds X3) **

**PewDiePie: FRIDAYS WITH PEWDIEPIE .D. **

**Andrea: Hehe, yush, anyway, thanks for reading!)**


	8. Chapter 8: Nightmares

_Cole looked around him to find himself in darkness, no light, no glow of anything, he couldn't even look down to see his feet on the ground, if there were any at all. His eyes were wide open however, in search for something besides him in all the black. He then spotted a familiar figure in the distance, her silky, brown hair impossible to miss, he all of a sudden didn't feel so lost. "Andrea!" he shouted, running towards her with a smile. Andrea only stood there as if he had not heard him, not turning around, she only stood still. Cole however took notice and stopped in his tracks, his eyes looking at her, as if trying to find out if this was a trap. "Andrea?" he called again. _

_ This time she turned, but instead of her usual chocolate eyes, they were red and swirly, Coles eyes shrunk in fear, he stepped back. Andrea smiled at him, her usual warm smile was not present, but instead replaced with a creepier grin, and with this she drew out her own weapon and approached him with it. Cole didn't know what was going on, Andrea's eyes were bright red and swirly, like his when he became hypnotized, could she be under the influence of a Hypnobrai? Yet, she looked at him, not like in a trance, but evilly, she looked ready to get rid off him. Cole shook his head, "A-Andrea what are you doing?" _

_ To this she cackled, raised her staff, and smirked, "Time to die..." _

_ "A-Andrea quit it, this i-isn't you! SNAP OUT OF IT!" Cole screamed, his eyes on the verge of tears. Andrea ignored him and secured her target, Cole tried to run but he was pulled back by something, his legs wouldn't move, and he had to stay put. Andrea got closer to him, ready to fire, the end of her staff lighting up with a bright beam of energy aimed straight for him, and in the blink of an eye, Cole saw a flash of bright light flash before him, hearing someone scream. He then realized it was himself, he had gotten hit, and time seemed to go more slowly, and his whole body felt numb, what happened? Had he died? No, this couldn't be true! It couldn't! That's when a brighter light emerged him, it would've blinded him, but he felt himself heal from it, he soon became embedded with the light, no sign of the corrupted Andrea anywhere...had it all been fake? Was this a dream? So if it was...then that meant... _

Cole awoke with a gasp, sitting up in cold sweat, what a nightmare that was. He looked out to see it was nearly sunrise, maybe he could get a head start on finding some food this time, with the animals asleep. So he stretched, forgetting about the nightmare and hopped himself down back to the ground, he then looked around for anything he could use as a weapon. He found a stick and a sharp stone. He tore off a vine from a nearby tree and wrapped the stone tightly onto the stick, making the knot firm and tight so the stone wouldn't fall from its place. He had now made a spear, and was ready to go out into a hunt. _I cant repeat what happened yesterday, this time I've got to be serious about my hunting...no more fun and games. _

Although, mother nature did have a knack for messing with people, and a few days before, Cole might've nearly died from struggling to survive against her challenges, but today was a new day, and Cole was bound to be ready for anything. Cole tried to hunt the way any other animal would: by stealth. The skill was very easy for him, considering he was a ninja, so this was nothing new, but trying to blend in a deserted pit can be hard to cope. He managed to catch a few lizards to feast on, and some mice he found crawling on the ground. While eating his breakfast, he managed to hear the sound of running water. That got him to his feet, he ran towards the sound and found a creek flowing through the cracks of the wall of rock. He smiled, "Finally, some water."

He took a long sip from the creek and thanks to his lack of thirst to him it was the best water he had ever drank in days. He also decided to clean himself, he hadn't showered for the last few days, anyone was bound to reek by that time. The water was deep enough to bathe in, and it made him feel relaxed, and for a while, he might've actually fallen asleep...for too long. He had another dream, far from the nightmare he had this morning, which was good, but this one seemed to turn out the same horrifying way, it started out with him in the gorge, and his friends had come to save him. Cole was happy, but was cut off guard when Kai said, "Sorry, Cole, we only came to mock you."

Cole's smile faded, "What? But I-"

"We would never let you back on the team, you'll only be left behind considering you wont be able to turn into a dragon like us, sorry," Jay stated pitifully, although he sounded almost to be enjoying this. Cole watched as his friends, even Jay and Zane, turn into their dragon forms, and fly away, they didn't look back at him, not even once. Cole tried to go after them, "W-Wait!" He tried to turn himself, but he just couldn't do it. "D-Don't leave me! GUYS!" he cried. But they couldn't hear him, Cole dropped to his knees and looked as they vanished from sight, and he was hurt more to see Andrea had left him behind as well. "Don't...leave me," he sniffled. The dream ended and Cole came back to reality, he found himself still submerged in the stream, and found out he had been asleep. As he thought about the dream, he began to remember that he still hasn't managed to reach his dragon potential, when will it come to him? Does it come early or late? He thought back to what Andrea had told him to do, he had to relax, and let it happen naturally, how could he do that exactly?

"What if I'm the one left behind," he said solemnly, rethinking his dream, "and the others...abandon me."

He decided to forget about it and move along, he finished washing himself and then cleaned his clothes, after drying and pulling on his shirt he picked up his spear and continued on forward, trying to forget of his fears.

**(Well, this chapter certainly didn't have that much comic relief, but hey, I tried, I just hope this is well enough for you guys, tomorrow might not be so long but oh well, I do what I can to make this story worth reading. Anyway, it seems Cole has experienced some rough nightmares, damn, poor guy, first mother nature now his own head is messing with him, god, would someone lay off him already? Now the next chapter will focus somewhat on the snake generals and those two snakes that went in in search for Cole, now ****_that _****chapter will be filled with some laughs, until next time, have a Swift Saturday, and I thank you all for reading)**


	9. Chapter 9: Mischieful Snakes

"They WHAT?!"

"U-Uh, sorry, Skales, but its just what I saw! They went for it and climbed down the gorge!" a Hypnobrai scout, Rattla replied. Skales paced around, his fingers to his forehead in frustration, he groaned, "They were ssssupposssed to wait along with the othersss! What if the ninja ssssaw usss? That would lead them to the prisssoner!"

"The oddsss of that are low, general Skales," implied a Venomari.

"Do you think I care?! Thingsss happen, thossse two are going to cossst usss our livesss! The plan will turn into a disssassster!" Skales cried. The other snake generals were present, they exchanged sincere glances upon reacting to Skales worried tactics. "Uh, Skales, I know you sssseem a bit, anxiousss about all thissss, but why did you even think of that plan in the firssst place? If you knew it wasss going to get usss killed in the end, how come you sssuggested it to Pythor?" Acidicus hissed.

"Because we would've all been killed due to hissss inssssanity! A villain needsss a plan, a devilisssh plan to function and crush his foesss, without that, Pythor will go mad and blindly kill usss all!" Skales yelled. The generals seemed to understand the reason for his concern, however, they were still utterly confused by the way this was going. "I ssstill don't ssssee why you gave him a "fake" plan," Skaidor stated.

Skales turned and faced the wall of the cave, there, some plans were drawn, a map and a few pin points and circles on the area they were in, the Hypnobrai general narrowed his eyes, "Itssss becaussse our enemiesss are becoming ssstronger, with all thissss, recruitment, their dragonsss to asssissst them on their missions, I only ssssuggesssted the first thing that came to mind, even if it was only ussssed to sssstall, we could usssse it for an advantage couldn't we?"

"I don't believe that to be all ssso true, Skales. Its complicated, we cant jusssst capture them, they'll break loossse, and alssso, their teammatesss might ruin everything! Itsss old ssschool failure old friend," Acidicus stated. Skales looked ready to burst, he had just about enough of always "losing" to those ninja, it sucked, and he didn't like that one bit. Fangtom decided to barge in on the conversation. "Well, we might be," his first head began. "To devissse another plan, out of your fraud," finished the second.

"How do you ssssuppossse we do that? We only have two of our men out on the field on tracking him, plusss, itsss a minefield, predatorssss from every corner, they'll never ssssurvive, Fangtom," Skales said.

Fangtom took Skales, keeping him close, a diminishing smile showing from both heads. "You worry too much, Skalesss," hissed the first. "We can handle whatever mother nature throwsss at us, we have been living in tombsss," his second head began, his first finishing, "for all eternity."

"Fangtom hasss a point," Acidicus came in, "our men will be able to handle whatever isss down there, maybe when we have the ninja in possessssion, we can think up of a different plan, one more better, Pythor wont be disssapointed once his fate is decided."

Skales pondered, still not sure about the whole thing, "I don't ssssee how this will help at all, Pythor will regain his will again, and if he finds out about thisss, we'll have duessss to pay."

"Come on," Fangtom hissed, his second head coming in, "we sssshall decide then, we catch the ninja, and ussse him to our advantage..." The generals all looked at Skales, waiting for an answer, Skales sighed, "I'm sssstill not ssso sure about thiss, but...alright, fine. We shall ssssend our troopsss out, and catch the ninja before the end of the week, Pythor will return by that time, and decide what to do with him."

The snakes all smiled, and Skales couldn't help but crack one himself as well.

**(A new plan is being devised! But will it work or fail like last time? Will Skales stop worrying so much? The last, I doubt it, looks like food and survival is not the only thing Cole has to worry about, he has a whole fleet of Serpentine on his tail, technically, heels, since he doesn't have a tail yet, but not soon enough! I hope this chapter made enough sense for you guys, I tried my best, and well, I'd say this one kind of deserved three stars, but that's not in my opinion, so I'll just leave it there ^^, until next time, have a Chill Sunday guys, and thanks for reading)**


	10. Chapter 10: A Better Day

The snakes looked throughout the barren grounds of the deserted pit, using stealth to look out for anything, or anyone that proved to be a threat. "You ssssure, he came around thisss way?" asked one.

"Of courssse, at leassst, thatsss what I think," the other stated.

"Ugh, if we get lossst, I'm ssso blaming you," hissed the first. The second only grumbled and pulled his partner along, their weapons tight in their hands in case they had to fight. Little did they know, a group not to far behind seemed to be better off then the snakes, Andrea, Kai, Jay, and Zane were all looking the best they could, trying to find any sign of Cole. Zane searched the grounds, he spots something ahead of them, he picks it up and examines the substance between his fingers, he sees it to be a patch of scarlet blood, as he confirmed. _Is Cole hurt? Or is this from a wounded animal? _He analyzed the blood sample through his servers, and in the meantime the others were looking around themselves, trying to find other clues. "Anything?" Kai asked.

"No," Jay called, looking under a rock. Andrea kicked a stone away, and another, but it appears nothing was found, so she responded with a mere no, alike Jay. Kai grunted, he was growing impatient, no surprise there, but in all seriousness he was starting to doubt this, Cole could be miles away now, how would they ever catch up to the snakes in time before he's caught?

Zane verified the blood sample to be that of their leaders, his eyes widen in shock, "U-Uh, guys?" The ice ninjas discovery brought attention to them all and they rushed over to see what he had found. "What'd you find? A note? A piece of fabric? A weapon?" Jay questioned all at once. The Nindroid shook his head, "No, blood."

"Blood?!" they all cried at once. Kai was the first to speak, "But, its not Coles...is it?"

"I just confirmed it, it seems our earthbound friend is injured," Zane replied, looking again at the blotch of blood on the ground. Andrea spoke this time, anxious more, "H-How badly, according to that amount?"

"I cant verify the exact results, but I'd say we better move quick, chances are this injury might slow him down a bit, giving the Serpentine an advantage on capturing him, we cant let them have him," Zane explained. Kai pounded his fist, his eyebrows knitted in anger, "Then we have to make the best of what we can, I'll fly ahead and scout around for any sign of him, you guys keep track on the Serpentine and if they spot him, make sure they don't catch him early. I'll be back sooner if I can, perhaps later, but I'll be back, good luck guys." With that, Kai transformed and flew upward to the skies, the others watched as he vanished from sight.

Andrea eyed the blood patch, her eyes glinting with worry, "Lets hope this injury isn't major, alright guys, you heard my brother, lets move." On her command, they all began to head in the direction the snakes went, in hopes of finding Cole faster. Speaking of our well-known earth ninja, he so happened to be not too far away, but the gorge was so large you could barely tell where anyone or anything was, so again, he was lost. The cut on his left cheek seemed to be getting a bit infected, considering he know started to feel a bit ill and had the need to rest every now and then. He stared up at the sky, is amber eyes dim from immense fatigue, the sun had set once more and was starting to disappear over the horizon, Cole held in his breath, its been almost three days now, since he fell in the pit, where where the others? He needed them now more than ever. He was broken away from his thoughts when a rough cough was forced out of him, he sat up and breathed, his throat felt dry, he was getting sick.

"J-Just...great, for more reason to h-hurry...where are you guys?" he muttered between coughs, "w-where...are you..."

The thought of abandonment came right back to him, his eyes shrunk in fear but he only shook his head and stood up, ignoring how weak he felt, trying to get the thought of his mind. "Their not going to leave you, so stop worrying and shut the fuck up head," he cursed. After regaining his strength to walk again, he trudged forward, ignoring the feeling of nausea that came to him, the horrific thoughts leaving his brain. Instead, he began to think of a way to reach his dragon status while in this barren wasteland, he could use practically anything around him to try, considering he was the ninja of earth, but how? Andrea said to give it time, well right now his time was numbered, considering he was sick, with no clinic nearby, he could die fast in here before he knew it. So he found a clear opening to practice in, he found himself back at the stream where he had bathed earlier, he couldn't believe his luck. First, he used the water to disinfect the cut on his cheek, and to clean his face, in an instant, the nausea and illness seemed to fade away. He then concentrated himself, targeting some rocks that were around him, using all his willpower to smash them with his bare hands. "Come on...come on," he muttered, closing his eyes to focus.

He then did a high jump and aimed straight for the rock, drawing out his scythe and letting it come down upon it. The rock split into two, as well as maybe the rest of the floor. "WAGH!" Cole had to jump back to the edge of the new, somewhat, gorge that formed before him, the rocks now disappearing into the deep and dark earth. Cole panted and laid himself beside the stream, he didn't want a replay of what happened two days ago, he'd been trapped enough. He put his scythe away, apparently he wasn't going to use that for practice, too dangerously unpredictable. He rubbed his hands together and tried smashing the remaining rocks with his own hands, he found this much easier to come by then the use of his scythe of quakes, and far less dangerous. "HIII-YAH!" he cut through a rock as if it were stacks of wood, the way a beginner karate master would, his fingers struck the surface like the tip of the spear, cutting through it clean. His hands were throbbing after his training, and he had to soak them in the stream to gain feeling back into them. After that, night fell, and the stars returned to their natural place in the sky. Cole glanced up at them, his eyes filled with wonder and amazement, besides rock climbing, watching the stars seemed like one of his favorite things to do. He felt comfort, and relaxation through this activity, as he began to form shapes from the stars into his head. What seemed like in forever, Cole finally pulled a smile fully relaxed, and...happy.

**(Aww, that was beautiful QAQ, I cant believe I wrote that, (clears throat) anyway, it seems I have regained my mind again! I'm thinking straight and I happened to finally make a longer chapter, tell me what you think in the reviews, all in all I hope you enjoyed this one. Also, it seems Cole has gotten a bit sick, can he stay alive for too long so his friends can find him? It seems only time will tell, but in the meantime we can laugh as the snakes struggle to find their way to him, but they shall never get to him, muahahahah .w., until then, have a Marvelous Monday, and I thank you all for reading)**


	11. Chapter 11: Driven to Anger

The next day, Cole woke up to feel worse.

He was hit with a feeling of nausea once he sat up, and he had to got on his knees for a while until the feeling settled in. "S-Shit," he moaned, feeling a sneeze coming on, it was much louder than expected and it only made his throat feel more dry. He drank from the stream, almost forgetting he had slept beside it, and then managed to get himself up to hunt. "Fourth day, here I come...welcome to hell, Cole," he muttered to himself as he hoisted himself up from the ground.

He fastened the rope that held his spear into place, if he used his scythe it would cause another earth quake, and eventually create another gorge. Cole looked around him in the one he was currently in, he began to think, did he cause this with his own weapon? Or was it just made from a natural disaster? He told himself to ignore that and move forward, his breakfast wasn't going to catch itself if he kept standing around sulking. Cole found some wild game just up ahead of him, and to his luck, they were large predators to which could tear him apart limb from limb, but if you were a skilled person as him, you wouldn't worry too much about their diets. Cole aimed straight for one, killing it instantly as the spear impaled through its ribcage and into the rocky ground. The young man smiled and ran forth towards his meal, but seemed to have forgot about the second predator, because the moment he reached for his spear, his back was being clawed by the a large Mountain cat. "GAH!" he screamed. He pulled his spear out, grunting in agony, then leaped forward his new found prey, the Mountain Cat did not hesitate to launch itself for him, its claws ready for a second round of sharpening.

Cole ended up with two cats to satisfy his hunger. As he roasted the bodies over a homemade fire, he decided to check on his new back scars. They looked much more serious than he had thought, they were basically large, gaping wounds that made him only want to hurl. He took off his shirt and ripped off a few pieces of it to stop the bleeding, it made him wince, "Sss...s-stupid, mountain lions clawing all over my spine, jeez, as if being sick weren't enough. Oh well, I better begin to eat my food before something else comes and steals it from me."

But as he began to feast on his hunted game, a pair of snakes seemed to have found their way to him. Once they spotted him from their hiding place, their eyes shone with glorious satisfaction. "Yess! We've found him! Now all we have to do issss get him back to the base," the first one hissed.

The second, not wanting to wait for any delays, jumped up, "Alright then, what are we waiting for? Letsss go!" However, the first comrade held his partner back from blowing their cover, the serpentine was confused, the first glared at him, "Shhh! Not now! First we mussst wait until he'sss in a much weaker state, we cant afford to losssse him again!"

"But, how do we know when he's weak enough to get captured?" the second one asked.

His comrade pointed at Cole's back, the claw marks visible, "Sssee thossse marksss? Their claw marksss, hessss been recently attacked by a wild animal, if we're lucky, hesss bound to have that happen again, and asss sssoon asss hesss down..." He drew his weapon and aimed it straight for his comrade, the snake ducked as the pirates sword was flung through the wall.

Cole finally finished his breakfast, and once putting his shirt back on, he continued on with a way to get out of there. He took the time to rest whenever his legs started to drag behind, or if he had a frequent urge to throw up, but he kept moving. The snakes followed him all day, they didn't want to lose their chance, if something happened to Cole, that was their cue to jump in and take him while hes immobile. But much to their dismay, not much of anything happened to slow Cole down, until it became time to hunt for lunch.

Cole was just about to look for something to kill when he spotted a dead animal up ahead, he smirked at his luck. "Well that wasn't too hard," he stated. He approached it, only to get himself knocked off balance by the same mountain wolf that had given him a hard time since the day he fell in. "Oh not you again," he groaned. The wolf bared its sharp teeth, just about ready to rip Coles flesh apart. The earth ninja stood his ground, his fingers tightly wrapped on the hilt of his spear, eyes squinted showing no sign of backing out. The two circled one another before battle, and the snakes had paid close attention if this were to be their moment. "Come at me, hound," Cole teased. The wolf, insulted, roared and lunged himself straight for Cole, the earth ninja was more then ready, his spear raised to kill, the animal snapping its jaws at him, trying to bite his face off. Cole fell to the floor, holding up his spear to keep the wolf from tearing his flesh, but the wolf was too clever, it lowered itself and snapped its jaws tight around Coles leg. "Gh!" he screeched. Cole banged his spear on the wolves head, trying to get it to open its mouth, winces of agony and pain escaping his mouth.

The snakes were having a good show, until Cole managed to finally pry the beasts jaws open to free his leg. He kneeled and panted, the wolf thrown to the side, and peered at his leg, he felt sick again, the bite was much nastier up close, scarlet blood began to pour out, the wound exposed and gaping. The wolf's recovery was quick, as it got back to its feet, bloodthirsty. Cole pulled on a murderous look, his eyes narrowed and his teeth clenched, "You messed...with the wrong guy." The two snake warriors were surprised to see Cole run straight at the beast with his spear in hand, his eyes showing anger and fury. The wolf only lunged again, but Cole jumped straight up high, his spear raised and ready, the wolf gaped up and dashed out of the way to avoid injury. Cole jabbed his spear into the ground, missing a couple inches away from the wolfs furry skin, he growled and tugged with effort to pull it out. The wolf took this as a chance to make his move, but as he took him from behind, Cole freed his weapon and turned to leave a nasty scar right across its face. The wolf howled and was thrown back against the wall, its whimpers ringing in Coles ears. The beast scratched itself on the nose only to howl loudly in pain, it looked back at Cole to receive a nasty glare, fear came to its eyes and it dashed away. Cole huffed and dropped his spear, his knees turning to jelly and his pain coming back to him, his leg still hurt a lot from that fight, and he had to be careful.

"Nowsss, our chance," said the first snake. Cole didn't expect to see two snake warriors headed his way, their weapons drawn and ready for battle, he stared at them in disgust. "Not these idiots," he cursed. The snakes took their places around him, and Cole only got to his feet, regaining his strength. The snakes glared at him, and Cole only stared back in hatred. He lunged at them, but they were ready to fight, unlike him who felt ill and weak. Cole found himself on the ground, but as one snake attempted to tie him down, he sprang up to punch him in the jaw. The snake screeched and fell back to the immense force, its partner stared at Cole in shock. "You want some? Or do I have to emphasize?" Cole threatened.

The serpentine glared daggers at him and charged, "AHHH!" Cole wielded his spear and scratched the snake right across the face, but didn't expect to be hit back. "Ngh!" he was forced to kneel, his hands tightly clasped over his side, it was a nasty cut, the odds weren't in his favor today weren't they? The snake chuckled and prepared for the capture, Cole rebelled against it, springing up to his toes again, which wiped the smirk of the serpentine's face. "You wont get me that easily!" he shouted, jumped up. The fallen snake joined his partner and battling Cole in an short brawl of violence, weapons cut through the air, merely missing the opponent by a few seconds. Cole learned to miss every slash and hit they could throw at him, and he thought he just might win until the two decided to gang up on him. One hit him from behind with his blade and to this, Cole couldn't take it, he fell in defeat.

The snakes smiled, and pinned him down, their eyes narrowing. "Ssshould have called for help, eh ninja?" hissed one. Cole spat blood, then stared at it profoundly, then up at the snakes, hatred visible through his features. "I-I seem to be lost, bastards...maybe you should be the one to cry for your tribe, I nearly beat you," Cole teased.

The snake laughed, "I'm not the one who'sss _alone_."

Now that hit Cole hard, he started to struggle against their clutches, but the snake made sure to firmly keep him put down with his foot, he stared right into Cole, fury shown upon his scaly face, "Where are your friends, lone ninja? Asss if they didn't abandon you, they probably have forgotten you already." Cole struggled but stopped once a sword was put up to his neck, he didn't dare move, one more cut and he might pass out from blood loss. The snakes smiled at him, they could easily tell he was trying not to show weakness, but through his eyes they knew how much pain he truly felt. "They musssst be, moving on, well enough, without you-"

"SHUT UP! THATS NOT TRUE!" Cole screamed, not realizing there were tears forming in his eyes.

"Oh, but it isss, why do you think they haven't come for you already? Itsss only been what, four daysss? Sure enough they've left you behind on purpossse," the snake continued. Cole looked at his enemy with hatred, but the truth started to sink in, why haven't his friends come for him yet? Was the snake right? Had he been abandoned?

The look of doubt on his face only made the two grin, they were gaining more power from his fears, this was only going to be easy for them, and if they could do the same with the other ninja, that would only make it much greater. "Ssso, do you believe me now, petty ninja?" hissed the serpentine.

Cole felt himself about to cry, but he narrowed his eyes and spat at the two as anger began to rise inside him, "No...NO, NO YOUR WRONG!" He pushed them off, his breath pacing, the two couldn't help but back away. "YOUR WRONG! I'M NOT ALONE!" Cole screamed. His anger drove him to draw out his golden weapon, the snakes gasped, Cole raised it blindly out of rage, "YOU'LL PAY FOR INSULTING ME!"

But the snakes were already gone, and it was until then Cole realized what had happened, he put his scythe away and stared at the spot where his enemies had been, he was surprised, snakes usually didn't cower even at the power of the golden weapons. But then he had a slight feeling that someone..._something _was breathing down his neck. He stood perfectly still, but knew if he didn't turn around, whatever _it _was, would eat him alive. So, in a slight bit of regret, he turned.

Before him, was an enormous, mighty, angry-looking dragon.


	12. Chapter 12: Mountain

At first, Cole only stood in awe at the magnificent creature before him, then he went completely still with fear. The dragon had black and silver scales, its head looked as if it were wearing a helmet of solid steel, its scales looked just the same and its entire body signaled the dragon was very strong.

Cole didn't want to fight it, he was very sick and injured, he would lose immediately, but the dragon didn't seem to take him for a friend, and so it got on its hind legs and prepared to fire. Cole took this chance to run, the dragon roared loudly and stomped after him. The young man picked up his pace, placing his weapon over his back to run faster, the dragon right on his heels, though running away from a stronger dragon is not the best choice when you have a bad leg. To this, Cole was immediately scooped up by the dragon's tail, he struggled, "L-Let go of me!" he yelled. The dragon itself stared Cole carefully with its large, beady eyes, Cole stood absolutely still, he didn't want to panic, he didn't want to be thought of as a coward, but in times like these, when theirs no way out, you cant help but call for help. "HELP!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

The cry was heard for miles throughout the pit, even Kai heard it while soaring through the skies, his ear twitched and he gasped. "That sounded like Cole!" he stated. He swooped down towards the sound, in concern for his friend, and to come to his aid if he was in indeed, big trouble.

Cole was covering just fine however, the dragon only stared at him curiously, examining him all over to the point where he noticed his deep wounds. The dragon took Cole tightly in its tail, stomping off to who knows where. Cole was merely struggling, his heart beating with excitement and he just thought he might pass out until he saw where the dragon was taking him. A deep and dark cave was shown right ahead of them, and Cole would've guessed, the cave belonged to the dragon. It was much larger then it looked from the outside, it was big enough to stack twelve elephants up to the roof. The dragon made his way to hoard of bones, setting Cole down on a rock beside it, one look at the hoard and Cole might've began to run, but he had a strange feeling, he didn't feel it was right to leave, why hadn't this dragon killed him yet? _Maybe its because he's deciding on how to cook me...or worse, how to make me into a nice hot stew _he thought. He did like the sound of something warm to eat right now, but if _he _were to be the one on the menu, no thanks, pass. So as Cole looked around the cavern, besides the spine-tingling piles of bones, everything else in the cave was magnificent, the ceiling were coated with diamonds that were stuck deep into the wall, and on the other, scales of all kind decorated the insides of the cavern, the sight itself was breathtaking.

The dragon came back with some things in its mouth, they looked like leaves. But as the dragon grew closer to him, Cole recognized them as rare herbs, the dragon had brought him some medicine. "You...don't want to hurt me?" he asked. The dragon cooed and got a grip on the side of his shirt, he tugged until it was fully off, exposing Cole's open wind to the cold air. He gasped and hugged himself with both his arms, the dragon saw his reaction and got right away to applying to herbs. "O-Ow, ow...sss," Cole hissed, the herbs stung, but not enough for it to be painful. The dragon licked them into place so they would stick to his wounds, Cole chuckled a bit, "That tickles."

Soon, Cole's pain was entirely gone, and he felt slightly better. "Hey, I feel better!" he exclaimed, getting to his feet. He then discovered to his dismay that his leg was still not fit for walking, and so he had to sit down again. "Partially, partially better, ow," he winced, chuckling slowly. The dragon shook its head and eyed Cole curiously, it took a sniff, and soon enough it gave a low roar. Cole questioned its behavior, "Whats wrong?"

The dragon pawed at the ground, he pointed to the scales on the wall, and motioned to Cole, the earth ninja soon realized what he was implying. "No, I'm not a dragon, your absolutely right," he stated, solemnly. The dragon approached him, Cole put on his shirt again to avoid the cold, and the dragon lay beside him in the cave, wrapping its tail around Cole. Cole laid against the dragons stomach, then seeing it had become night outside, the stars visible in the midnight sky. He relaxed at the rhythm of the dragons heart beat, its chest slowly rising and falling beneath his head, he found this to rock him to sleep, but before he went to bed, he wanted to tell the dragon something, "Uh...hey."

The dragon turned its head towards him as if to say _'Yes?' _

"Thanks, for not eating me I guess, and treating my injuries," Cole said. The dragon let his tongue fall on top of Cole's face, the earth ninja chuckled and wiped off the drool that soaked him from head to toe, "Eww, gross."

The dragon seemed to give a distorted chuckle, before letting its head fall down on the soft earthy ground. Cole smiled, after fully drying himself, he then asked, "Whats your name?"

The dragon lifted its head, and turned towards the mouth of the cave, Cole looked in that direction, and from their, he caught sight of a large, enormous mountain miles, days away from them. "Mountain?" Cole questioned. The dragon gave a triumphant roar, and to this the earth ninja grinned, "Mountain. I like the way you chose your name, your tall, and strong, kind of like a mountain."

The dragon smiled in its sleep, laying its head again on the earth. Cole laid himself again, letting his eyes close, for the first time ever since he fell in this gorge, he felt nothing could hurt him now, he was safe, with his new found friend.

**(So looks like Coles found a new friend! His name is Mountain! No, it wasn't Kai, for all of you that inferred, you were wrong, it was a new dragon, in fact, this one doesn't even live on Dragon Island, he dwells in the cave where Cole is now. It also seems, partial of Cole's fever and injuries have been cured, but wait until the rest of the snakes come for him, oh goodness, what will happen? Don't worry, Mountain's not going to die, but something is going to happen to him, not in the next chapter however, the snakes take the next one. Anyway, I hope this was enough to feed your interests, I worked as hard as I could on this one, and I ****_did _****include Kai, so hope that was enough, welp, until next time, have a Weirdo's Wednesday (WEIRD PEOPLE RULE! X3) and I thank you all for reading) **


	13. Author's Note

**Authors Note **

** Hey guys, I know your expecting a nice chapter from me, but well, this weeks been rough and I have two tests tomorrow that I need to study for, ones for History, ones for Math, so I hope you understand that I cant write a chapter today. But tomorrow I'll make it up to you, I'll fill it with some action, though I cant make any promises, I'm forgetful sometimes so please understand. Thanks guys, I wont let you down tomorrow, I promise. **

** ~A.S **


	14. Chapter 13 & a Half: A Day With a Dragon

The snakes were just about ready to give up, if not for Skales, who insisted they kept moving.

It's been hours since they descended into the gorge, and now things were getting harsh, even still, the amount of walking they had gone through, the group seemed to be getting nowhere now completely lost. Skales growled, "Why of all placesss, did we decide to plan here?"

His men opened their mouths to answer, but Skales stopped them, "Don't. Anssswer that."

They continued to move despite their aching feet and Skales tired snake skin, the more they walked forward, the more they seemed to loose themselves, it seems the winding paths were endless from their point of view. A Mezmo spoke up from the crowd, "Skales, all do ressspect, why cant we ssstop and ressst? This labyrinth of earth issss long and never-ending, we're bound to ressst at sssome point, right?"

Skales held in his breath and tried not to lose his patience, he was immensely frustrated at the moment, and keeping himself from bursting wasn't easy. "Becaussse," he snarled, "the more we wassste time, the likely it isss going to be much harder to find the ninja of earth...asss for the never-ending, long journey, we'll have to be patient! SSSSO SHUT UP AND SSSSTOP COMPLAINING, AND KEEP MO-"

"AHHHHH!" a piercing shriek filled the air. Skales and his men turned to the shrill sound as they saw two Mezmo's run towards the them, the same ones that went looking for Cole themselves, their expressions horrorstruck. Skales watched them with both confusion and disgust, they stopped screaming and came over to them. "S-Skales!" one gasped, "t-thank goodnesssss! We were jusssst about to be fried by a dragon!"

The rest of the Hypnobrai shuddered, Skales however was intrigued, "What...kind of Dragon?"

The second snake spoke, "I-It wassss steel black! It ressssembled a sssstrong beassst with massssssive jawssss and sharp fangsss, we would've been eaten alive if-"

Skales grabbed his troop by both his shoulders, looking straight into his eyes with crazy interest, the other troops looked as if he were insane. "WHERE?! WHERE DID YOU SSSSEE IT? WHERE CAN I FIND HIM?!" he shrieked.

The sun had risen upon Ninjago, and it was time for the land to wake up. Cole, still sleeping against Mountain, had awoken to the bright rays of the sun as they crept into his eyes through the open mouth of the cave. He groaned at the sound of morning and urged himself to get off his dragon friend to go find some breakfast. Cole looked back at Mountain, how could he leave without making the dragon think he'd left him? Cole decided to leave his scythe behind, to signify his return. With that done, he left the cave in search of food. Today, the fish swam in the stream, the water making them so clear, and easy enough for Cole to catch. He threw his spear clear through one, impaling it. "Haha, yes!" he cheered. He speared a few others before heading back to the cave.

Mountain greeted him, responding gladly to the dead fish in Cole's arms, the earth ninja smiled. "Hehe, I hardly doubted you wouldn't like this...uh, you wouldn't happen to have the power of fire would you?" he questioned.

Mountain suddenly frowned, Cole set the fish down and groaned, "Of course Earth Dragons don't have the power to breathe fire, guess I'll have to make one myself." Cole started out with two pieces of wood which he found laying on the ground, both were dry, perfect for lighting, and he had a nice spot to light it from, but the real hard part was, actually lightning it. Cole rubbed them so hard together, his hands themselves were beginning to burn, he let go of the sticks and yelped at his burning fingers, Mountain engulfed them with his mouth, his saliva cooling the burn, but also making Cole's hands reek of dragon drool and drip with it. "Ewww," he moaned.

After more hours of trying, Cole finally got the sticks to light, he was about to cook the fish when the wind blew it out, Cole slammed his hands into his face, "UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH." Mountain briskly blew heated mist onto the two sticks, they instantly caught on fire. Cole stared at him, "So you _can _make fire! You liar!" Mountain scoffed and grabbed a larger stick from the farther part of his cave and used it to hold the fish above the fire to cook it. While they cooked, Cole decided to peek at his injuries, but Mountain kept his shirt down insisting not to. "Come on, I'm not picking scabs, I promise!" Cole cried. Convincing didn't seem to get past Mountain's view on health, so it seemed Cole would never check on his cuts whatsoever, which troubled him, he only wanted to see if they were healing well, the herbs would've probably deteriorated into his open wounds, yet he still was curious, he was anxious to know when he would be fit to fight in the battlefield.

Finally, the fish was finished and they could happily eat their breakfast, as Cole bit into his first bite of fish, he felt a strange sense of deja vu, as if he'd tasted this before, somewhere far back. Once both were done, Mountain allowed Cole to climb on his back so they could walk through the gorge. One reason why Cole decided to accept his friends author, was not because he was being lazy and just went for the ride, but because he was tired, having a bad leg and all, this week had been exhausting for him from day one. Mountain seemed to accept that, and the walk was simply not all to boring, Mountain walked to places Cole had not encountered before, and higher places where the view was not too bad. They then came upon a new sight, it looked to be an entrance to a strange, large new place, like a cavern, only more open. Cole carefully climbed down the back of Mountain, and limped forward, balancing himself with Mountain's front leg. They edged closer and found themselves in an entirely different world from any of theirs. The cave was open but it felt as if it were nothing more than a pit of dark and nothing, and only the glowing eyes of Mountain could lead them through. The walls, or what looked to be the walls were dripping with moist water, and some of it strangely looked like drool. Cole, being guided by Mountain, edged himself forward deeper, until they came to a strange ending, which looked like a tongue.

Cole's eyes widened, "RUN!" Mountain picked Cole up and started to run for the exit, the mouth seemed to come to a close. However they were nearly shut in if not for Mountains fast hind legs, before the creature could snap its jaws at them. It roared and slithered into the dark depths of the earth, never to be seen again. Cole panted, leaning against Mountains left foot, "That was a close one, huh, Mount?" The earth dragon nodded in slight agreement. They kept moving forward to find themselves in a stoneyard, stones seemed to be everywhere, big, small, even pebbles littered the place. Cole eyed one and got an idea, he picked up an average rock and waved it in front of Mountains face, he followed it almost like a dog would with a stick. "You want to play fetch?" Cole asked, grinning.

The earth ninja flung the rock straight for the wall, Mountain quickly reacted by running after it in excitement, returning it to Cole and waiting for him to throw it again. Cole did this a couple times until both of them began to get hungry. Cole took out his spear but Mountain insisted, he spotted a group of Desert Iguanas miles away, deciding to make them his prey. Cole watched in awe as his friend crept towards them, silently as a mouse, and in the blink of an eye, the Iguanas became engulfed into stone. It took only a few short minutes to dearth them, but it was worth the wait, the iguanas were delicious. As Cole watched Mountain eat, he noticed something he didn't before, one of Mountain's wings was strangely scarred, or better yet torn, like something, or someone, ripped it themselves. Cole frowned, the thought coming to him _Mountain cant fly, that's why he only walks...poor dragon_. The sudden thought of not being able to fly reminded Cole of his dreams of abandonment, as well as what those snakes had said, he shook the thought away, but the thought of being able to fly dawned to him...he suddenly urged, wished to become a dragon, not to fly, but to walk besides his crippled friend who once did have the chance to experience the joy of being in the air. Cole stood up and cleared his throat, Mountain turned to him.

"Mountain. Uh, look, I've been meaning to tell you something," Cole began, Mountain paying full attention, "look, before I landed in here, I was told to...turn into a dragon, I've tried for the past few days and still nothing in particular, so I was wondering...could you help?" Mountain eyed Cole solemnly, and in pity, as if seeming to understand, he then turned and reached for a rock, Cole was confused at first, but then he watched as Mountain dropped the rock above him.

The earth ninjas eyes widened, "WAIT WHAT-" he stuck out his hands to stop the rocks fall, it weighed on top of him, making him grunt, Mountain eyed him carefully, beads of sweat beginning to pour down Coles face. "May I ask...(pant) why did you nearly try to kill me?!" Cole shrieked. Mountain seemed to smirk, he flicked the rock off of Cole, the earth ninja collapsed, panting, he then looked up at Mountain, and from the look on the dragons face he could tell this was only the beginning.

**(Well there you have it! I hope this was long enough to meet your interests, oh well, I just hope this was enough, its 11:49 over here and my legs are tired! Oh but I couldn't keep you guys waiting, so I wrote as much as I could, and oh goodness, seems like Skales found a quick way to Cole! Lets see if Kai can find him in time, before the snakes do, or will it be the other way around? Who knows, and it seems Cole now has a training coach to guide him, welp, thats all for me, until next time, have a T.G.I Friday! (UGH FINALLY) Thanks for reading!)**


	15. Chapter 14: Mistake

Kai was soaring high up in the sky, the day beginning to fade away as time fled by. His wings flapping at fast speed, he skimmed below for his earth ninja friend. "Ugh, Cole where are you?" he asked himself. He swooped down straight into the gorge, his dragon eyes taking in everything he saw, no sign of any life, anywhere, it was almost as if this were more of a desert than a pit. "Heh, I wonder how Cole would survive out here without any special po-" He tripped over a twisted vine in the clearing, tripped over a hoard of rocks and landing himself in a large spiders web. Kai stood absolutely still, his whole body freezing at the point where he had gone completely stiff. _I hate spiders! _his mind thought. Especially if they were poisonous, Kai was not a huge fan of the eight-legged nightmares known as Arachnids, they freak him out, the bigger they are, the more dangerous their bound to be, and judging by the size of the web, it seems Kai has invaded the home of a much more, enormous spider.

"Of all the places I could've landed, _this _one just HAS to be available!" Kai shrieked. His scream echoed throughout the gorge, alerting the group of snakes that just so happened to be nearby. Skales was the first to hear it, "Wait...do you hear that?"

They listened for it again, and sure enough, a few curse words followed along with the scream, Skales twisted his face into a nasty frown. "Itsss one of the ninja! You two lead them in here!" the two Mezmo's shrank in guilt, and also in fear, Skales grumbled but then began to form a plan in his head, "Why...yesss, it isss...thisss isss jussst perfect!"

"U-Uh, what isss?" asked one of the troops.

Skales began to slither towards the shouts, "Jusssst follow that ninjasss cursing!"

Meanwhile, Kai was in a big and sticky, situation, the spider seems to have arrived home to find Kai in its web, and it was most defiantly bigger than an average dinner plate. Kai stopped cursing out loud, his muscles stiff as a board, the spiders pincers looked ready to suck the life out of him, not in a vampire way, it was the truth. "U-Uh, p-please don't eat me, s-spider," Kai quivered.

The spider focused all its eyes on Kai, narrowing them, he edged closer and began to snip its pincers at him, Kai expected the worst. What he got, was actually, much _much _worse, the snakes jumped out before him, their weapons ready. Kai grit his teeth, "Oh not these guys again." The snakes ignored his insult and went for the spider who was hissing and lashing at them to "bug" off **(PUN X3) **the snakes didn't comply, they only continued to try to skewer him. The spider fought a rough scuffle, and it was until Skales came in to finish it off for good to end it. The spider, now impaled, fell to the floor dead, Kai stared in horror. He then turned to see the snakes cut parts of the spider web that Kai was in, and Kai at first thought they were going to free them. _Oh sure _his mind bellowed. _Like my true enemies are gonna free me, that will be something_. They used the silk as a net, which Kai was trapped in, Skales grinned at him smugly. "Keep your enemies clossse," he teased.

Kai growled and began to beat his wings in a struggle, two snake warriors managed to stop his attempts of freedom by using the silk as ropes. Kai growled, "If you think you can trap me this easily, than your wrong, Skales!" Kai shrieked. Skales merely chuckled, "On the contrary, young ninja...your not jussst a hossstage...your alsssso live _bait_." Kai's eyes widen at the realization, he watched horrifyingly as Skales cackled and lead the way.

Meanwhile, Mountain had just set up a training coarse for Cole in the stoneyard, rocks were arranged all into a straight line, some zig-zagged and some in circle, what Cole simply had to do was to move the rocks using his mind, to throw them against the wall, as well as his strength. "So, you think this will help me reach my dragon potential?" Cole asked. Mountain nodded, the earth ninja turned to the coarse and rubbed his fingers together, "Ok...lets do this."

He took a deep breath and concentrated hard, his fingers pointing straight forward to one of the rocks in the distance, his hand open and beginning to tighten into fists. The rocks rattled a bit, they began to hover above the ground in one swift motion, Cole continued to concentrate, his hands now in the form of fists. The rocks floated high and with one fast motion, Cole pushed his hand forward to throw it against the earth wall, he opened his eyes to see his achievement, a smile spreading across his face. "I did it!" he cried with excitement. Mountain grumbled and reached for another rock, throwing it high in the air, Cole acted quickly and took out his scythe of quakes, jumping up high, swinging it to break through it, sending rock pieces flying. Mountain smirked, impressed, Cole grinned with pride, "That's all you can throw at me?"

Mountain scoffed and batted a boulder with his tail, almost like a baseball bat hitting a baseball, Cole swung hard, the blade penetrating it with one rough hit. Mountain threw more at fast speed, Cole hitting them all in one try, he smiled, smug at his fast learning skills, "Not to shabby, eh?"

Mountain shook his head in sarcasm, Cole chuckled, "I've only trained for a few times, come on make me do something harder." Mountain smiled and opened his mouth, Cole's eyes shrunk in fear, rock began to shoot out of the dragon's moth and coming straight for him. "Whoa!" he cried out, lifting his scythe in defense. He swiped quickly, blocking every rock that came to him, one missed him simply by the head and another hit him roughly into the chest. Cole gasped and fell due to immense shock, the edges of his vision beginning to blur. Mountain narrowed his eyes and realized what he had just done, he roared and ran straight to Cole and began to lick him, the earth ninja was knocked right back to consciousness. "O-Ow," he moaned. Mountain helped him up and let his head fall in shame, Cole gripped the side of his arm and looked at Mountain in pity. "Its not your fault, I'm fine," Cole stated.

Mountain whined and laid beside him, Cole placed his fingers on top of his snout, petting him, "Its ok, Mount, really..."

Their moment was interrupted by a loud battle cry, Mountain's head jerked up immediately, in full alert, Cole brought himself to his feet as well, the two spotted a group of Serpentine up ahead. Cole grit his teeth, "Serpentine."

Skales seemed to have noticed his expression, because he sneered, "Earth ninja, we meet at lasssst, I admit, finding you was a lot harder than I thought...it sssseemssss I occupied myssself lately with, other thingsss."

Cole just gripped tightly onto his scythe, his patience almost leaving him, "State your business, snake!"

"I merely assssk, for your capture, assss a courtesssy to Pythor, and pleassse, do not try and sssstrugle, that will only make it more harder to endure," Skales purred. Two snake warriors approached them, Cole narrowed his eyes and yelled, "NOT TODAY BITCH!" he raised his scythe and struck it into the earth, the ground rumbled, breaking away into a bottomless pit, the snakes backing away. Skales however shouted, "What are you doing?! GET HIM!"

Cole growled and sprung into action, using all his hard-earned training, Mountain by his scythe, the snakes were no much for the two forces of nature. Cole used his telepathic powers to crush a group of Rattlas that wanted to pick a fight with him, Mountain breathed rock on a few others, permanently turning them to stone. It seems this battle would end quite shortly, until that is, Skales decided to play dirty.

"COLE?!" the earth ninja froze in the midst of battle at the scream, he turned to see Kai in a trap, his friend stuck by two Hypnobrai. "KAI!" he shouted, fighting his way through a hoard of serpentine. Mountain looked at him and cried out, until he realized he was being climbed on. Two Rattla's and one Mezmo hitched a ride, stabbing their swords into the beast, Mountain roared in pain, Cole turned to see, he gasped, now realizing he had to make a choice. Skales was enjoying this all too much, what would he choose? Either way it would end badly, considering the snakes now had the upper hand.

Mountain tried as hard as he could to buck them off, his shrieks and piercing screams of pain ringing in Coles ears. Right now, the earth ninja felt hurt, what should he choose? To free his teammate, or to help his friend? He grunt, he looked back at Kai, who gave him a look of puzzlement, Cole couldn't decide.

Skales humphed, "Very well, finish off the dragon."

The warriors did it with pleasure, tying ropes to either side of Mountain's thick head and pulling, Cole's eyes widened in horror, his screams filling the air along with Mountains, "NOOOO!" He fought his way through to get to him, some snakes cut through and some decapitated, Cole didn't care, he had to help Mountain, he even ignored the shouts of Kai behind him yelling, "COLE WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Cole sliced at the snakes using the blade of his scythe, pushing them aside, Mountain lay on the ground whimpering, Cole sliced the ropes and he was free, he put his hands on the dragon's face, "Mountain! Mountain are you ok?"

A low roar and a smile from the dragon made Cole realize Mountain would survive, he gave a weak smile, but stopped at the sound of a cackle. Cole turned to see Skales and his remaining men, Kai still in their possession, he immediately broke in a fighting stance but Skales shook his head, "Heroesss need to make choicesss. Looksss like you picked wrong."

"No!" Cole yelled, running at them.

But in a moment, the snakes were gone, just like that, Cole looked around, anxiety washing over him, his scythe raised ready to skewer anything that went his way. He soon found the place was deserted, no snakes, no Kai. He felt a pang of guilt hit him right in the chest, he held in his tears, he had just let Kai fall into the hands of a tribe of notorious snakes, he felt like a moron, he wanted to beat himself for making such a poor decision, even if he did it to save Mountain.

Mountain came over to comfort him, but Cole only snapped, "No! Get away from me!"

Mountain backed away, looking at Cole with pitiful eyes, Cole couldn't stop the tears from coming down, he winced, looking at Mountain angrily, "J-Just go! (Sniff) P-Please I don't want you here!" Mountain looked back at Cole, his eyes looking down at the ground, Cole turned away from him and let himself drop to his knees to cry, not looking back to notice Mountain slip away in shame. It was until then the earth ninja realized his mistake, he turned, but found no one.

"M-Mountain?" he sputtered, scanning the area.

No answer came. Cole quickly got to his feet, running around, "Mountain? Mountain, I-I'm sorry! P-Please!" Still no response. Tears began to form in the young man's eyes, he called out, his voice cracking as he spoke, "M-Mountain! C-Come back! P-PLEASE!"

Again, no response, the earth ninja let the tears fall from his eyes, the fear coming back to him.

He'd been left behind.

He messed up.


	16. Chapter 15: A Friend Captured

Andrea awoke, panting in cold sweat. Lightning flashed outside, her eyes darting to the mouth of the cave which she, Jay, and Zane all took shelter in. Andrea recalled her nightmare, Kai had been captured, Cole was on the ground in sorrow and guilt, what did this all mean? From birth Andrea knew that her dreams were not one to kid with, whatever she dreamed or thought about, they always seemed to find their way into reality, which only made her anxious.

She shook the two awake, they woke with irritated groans. "Guys, get up, get up now," she barked. They rubbed their eyes and asked, "What is it?"

Andrea took out her kunai daggers and headed into the outside downpour, Jay went after her, followed by Zane. "Whoa, Andrea where are you going?!" the blue ninja shrieked.

"To find my brother, and Cole, somethings gone terribly wrong, _very _wrong," she spat.

Meanwhile, miles away from their location, Cole was trudging through the pouring rain, his scythe dragging behind him. He didn't bother looking where he was going, if it was over a cliff, what a relief it would've been. Cole tried not to cry, or sniffle, even though he felt sicker than he already was he didn't want to show any weakness, he made a terrible mistake that landed his friend in terrible danger, not to mention he chased away the very dragon that had helped him through so much, how could he have repaid him with such cruelty? He felt like a monster, he just wanted to grow sick and die, he didn't even care, it would've been pure joy to know that he would be put out of of his misery.

However, the rain was pouring down, he felt sick to the bone, expecting death, but none came, his legs felt tired but something urged him to keep moving, Cole wondered what would happen if he looked up, the lightning could directly electrocute him, but it seems he's not a conductor of electricity. He grunt and pinned his scythe onto his back, ignoring the pouring rain beating on him, his black hair and ninja robes completely soaked, he couldn't see a thing through his raven, black bangs. "Stupid, hair," he grumbled, pushing it away from his eyes. At the moment, he didn't count on being hunted, because there were a pack of wolves who wanted to mess with him for hurting their friend. Cole soon found himself surrounded by a whole group of wolves, he stared at them with no emotion, their fangs bared and sharp. He dropped his scythe, the wolves stared at it cautiously, then back at Cole, who then spread his arms out and said, "Go ahead."

The wolves stared at him in confusion, was this a trick, Cole soon got tears in his eyes, he raised his voice, "G-Go ahead, do it...I-I don't care anymore."

The wolves looked at one another, then back at Cole they backed away, and to this Cole grew angry, "What are you waiting for?! You want food, right?! J-Just fucking eat me you dumb dogs!" The wolves snarled, yet they backed away from his selfless bickering, Cole tightened his fists in the brisk realization they weren't going to eat him, to this he spat, "Fine."

He picked up his scythe and walked his way through them, the wolves stared back at him in all seriousness, Cole didn't look back once, he didn't once feel sorry for himself, ever, he only moved forward ignoring his problems, what had happened earlier was his fault, no one else's it would be understandable he wished to die.

Yet he moved on forward, no regard of looking back, he maybe could make this right again, but who knows if anyone, even Mountain, would forgive him? Cole wouldn't blame the dragon if he didn't accept his apology. Yet, he moved on, in the direction he felt was right, not noticing the pack of dogs following behind him.

Jay quickened his pace, right after Andrea who was running as fast as she could manage, Zane being left behind in the dust tried his best to catch up, along with Jay who was barely head to head on the driven universe ninja. "Andrea!" Jay called, between pants, "where are we-pant-going in this rain?!"

"Less talk, motormouth!" Andrea shouted, bouncing off the walls, "more running!" Jay and Zane glanced at each other and gave each other a "she's-crazy-look" but they followed her off into the pouring rain. They didn't notice much to their surprise, a few snake warriors, they were on watch, and they seem to have spotted the three pass by their hiding place. They both smiled and crept into the shadows to follow. Andrea was quickening up her speed, obviously desperate, the other two thought she should slow down but she wasn't taking orders from them. She leaped across a gap between the floor, and landed on both feet on the other side. The other two followed in suit, avoiding the cold rain pounding on them as they ran. Jay sneezed, Zane stated, "Bless you, your catching a cold aren't you?"

"Why wouldn't I?!" shrieked Jay, "its little-miss-loco who dragged us out here into this rapid downpour!" Andrea leapt onward the others following until two mischievous snakes decided to pull a trap. Jay and Zane found themselves in sticky web nets, Jay cried out, Andrea looked back to see, she gasped. The two snakes jumped out and cackled, tying the two into the net, they struggled against their clutches, but the snakes continued until interrupted by a certain someone. "HEY!" Andrea shouted, getting the snakes attention. She gripped tightly to her kunai daggers and gave the snakes the evil eye, they scoffed. "Little girl come to save the day? Haven't you caused enough problemssss?" hissed one.

In the blink of an eye, the snake was down, his partner blinked and stared back at Andrea, one of her daggers splattered with scarlet blood. The snake immediately knew she was not one to kid with, he took out his own weapon, a pirates blade and sprung forward, Andrea doing the same. Zane drew out his shuriken and cut him and Jay free from the stickiness of the web net and watched in awe as Andrea lashed out at the snake in threatening combat. "YAH!" she shrieked, stabbing her weapon into the snakes eye, permanently blinding him from that side. He hissed and fell, clutching his eye tightly, he then stared at Andrea in pure hatred, anger immediately shown through his features.

Andrea stared back, the Hypnobrai hissed and sprang forward, opening its eyes, Jay and Zane gasped. "ANDREA DON'T LOOK!" they shouted. But it was too late, or was it? It seems the snakes hypnotic affect did nothing to Andrea, she simply shook her head and glared, the snake was dumbstruck. "You'll have to do better than that to stop me," she spat, taking out her golden staff. The snake backed away, the power radiating from it was not to be mistaken for something weak and powerless, great and unspeakable it was. Andrea shot a beam of light towards the snake to subdue it, the snake held up his blade, which deflected the light back at her, Andrea gasped and shrieked, her eyes exposed to the lights power.

"Andrea!" Jay shrieked, Zane along with him looking anxious.

Andrea rubbed her eyes, the snake took this as a chance to use his true power, its hypnotic stare staring right into her soul, and this time, it worked. Andrea was now under the hypnobrai's full control.

The two watched in horror, as they watched her turn from friend, to foe. Her eyes now flaring red, she bowed before the Hypnobrai, her voice robotic as she spoke, "I am now in your control." The snake laughed and pointed towards Jay and Zane, his grin spreading widely, "Kill them off."

"Yes, master," Andrea cooed, raising her staff and targeting it towards the two, they however acted quickly running out of her way and dodging her every attack, they soon made it out through a gap in the wall. Andrea was about to head for them but the Hypnobrai stopped her, "Let thossss two moronsss go, Skalesss would undoubtfully have plansss, for you my sssweet." He then lead Andrea away, in pure satisfactory.

After the rain died down, it seems Cole as figured out that the pack of wolves were following him, because he looked behind them in pure surprise. "What the, what you were following me?" he sputtered, amazed. The dogs growled, and he growled back, "I told you to back off! If you want to eat me you c-"

He was cut short by a a sudden hit from two people, which he knew all to well, Jay and Zane had rolled out of the gap and onto Cole, squishing him under a heavy pig-pile. Jay gasped at the sight of him, "Cole! We found you!"

"J-Jay?!" shrieked Cole, looking up at them. Zane got off and helped both of them up, the dogs snarled at the newcomers, Cole hushed them with a shout, which astonished the two. Cole then turned to them, he obviously looked slight bit happy, yet at the same time irritated, "W-What are you guys doing here?"

"Well we sort of, ran into you on accident, plus we were looking for you and we-" Zane cut him off with a hit on the head, he then blurt out, "Cole we were attacked by a serpentine."

Cole grew anxious, "W-What, how many?"

"It doesn't matter, we need to move now!" Zane yelled, grabbing his hand, but Cole wanted further explanation, "What do you mean, what happened?"

"Andrea, she got taken," Jay finally said."

Cole's eyes shrunk in fear, "W-What?"

**(Oh fuck, it seems now Cole is going to have slight motivation in rescuing, but can he forgive Mountain for his sudden outburst? Find out tomorrow in the next chapter! (After the torturous prison we call "school" -_-) But you get the point, it seems this episode is almost getting to the action! Let's see what will happen next when I update (or try to, if I'm not attacked by an avalanche of homework DX) the next chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed this one and I really liked how it came out, and it seems Andrea has been hypnotized! Bad luck for everyone! Shit! Oh well, until next time, have an Awesome Sunday guys, and thanks for reading!)**


	17. Chapter 16: I Needed That

The snakes had never been more happy any other day in their lives.

They were celebrating the capture of one of the ninja, Kai, who was stuck onto a spiders web on the wall, getting stung a lot by scorpions and spiders that crept the walls. Even though his dragon blood was immune to poison, he couldn't help but feel dizzy and nauseous, especially since he was upside down. "Would someone please get these bugs off me?!" he shrieked. The snakes guarding him chuckled, sneering at his struggle, one then scoffed, "What would be the fun in that?"

Kai groaned and just tried to keep his food down, his stomach lurching and his head feeling lighter with blood rushing to it. In came a local Hypnobrai, Andrea following him, her eyes swirly red, the snakes all paused their small party and looked their way, whispering and glancing at the hypnotized girl they saw before them. Skales was alerted by the commotion, "What isss going on?" he spoke. The other generals rose from their side of the lair as well to see what all the fuss was about. The Hypnobrai warrior presented Andrea to them, and they eyed her with most curiosity, but Skales stopped at the sight of her eyes. "You hypnotized her," he uttered, obviously amazed.

"Yesss, Skalesss," hissed the Hypnobrai, Slithra, "I ran into her when her two friends were out in the rain, looking for the prissssoner." Skales examined Andrea, taking in all her features, his eyes suddenly moved to the glowing weapon she held in her hands, his eyes full of interest at once, "The all powerful staff...she wields it?"

Slithra glanced at it himself and reached forward to touch it, but in reflex, Andrea pulled it away. Skales looked at Andrea, a foul smile spreading across his scaly face, "She holdssss masssive power, I can feel it. Good choice, now our forcesss will be unssstoppable."

Skales then turned to discuss with the other generals, when a sudden thought struck Slithra. "U-Uh, general?" he sputtered quickly. The Hypnobrai paused and turned back to his second-in-command, "Yesss?"

"I forgot to mention the other two blokesss that were with her, the one in blue and the the one in white, they got away before _she _could quickly dissspossse of them, ssshould we be concerned?" Slithra questioned, anxiously. Sudden murmur arose throughout the lair, making the smile on Skales face almost vanish, he silenced them all, they obeyed. The Hypnobrai general than faced his shaken companion, who almost seemed to regret opening his mouth. But to all of their surprise, Skales laughed. "Why of courssse, not, Slithra, honesstly have you been lisssstening to a word I had sssaid?" he hissed, almost in a growl. Before Slithra could have a chance to relax that Skales hadn't shouted, the general cut him off, "We have a girl here with unssspeakable power, we have nothing to worry about." The generals all looked at Skales, impressed with his calm exterior, how he had not snapped, the other snakes couldn't even believe it either, but Kai didn't look happy.

"What have you done to my sister?!" he shrieked almost instantly. Skales turned all his attention to the fire ninja, he slithered his way over to him, drawing out a dagger and resting it on the tip of Kai's chin, the young man held his breath. "Your ssssissster, hasss chossen her ssside," Skales hissed. Kai stared into his hypnotic eyes, expecting to be entranced, but nothing came, dragons must've been immune or something. Skales seemed puzzled too, but instead he stared at the ninja in hatred, his forked tongue folded to create a disgusted expression, Kai thought he was sick. "Honesstly, you ninja never know what to expect, sssuch asss _thisss_," Skales implied. Before Kai knew it, Skales cut from Kai's chin to the middle of his chest, the fire ninja screamed, making the snakes jump, startled. Andrea watched her brothers pain, her eye twitched, feeling his pain. She immediately turned away, and only Acidicus seemed to notice.

Skales turned away and wiped the blood off his dagger, slithering back to his place with the other generals, his smile never leaving his face, he stared at everyone, "Well? On with the celebration!" The snakes continued to party, Andrea keeping her distance almost like being told to, Kai only stared back at her, blood seeping through the scratch Skales gave him. He stared at her sisters eyes, her red, swirly, entranced spectacles, and Kai felt himself get shot in the heart. Kai imagined her sister, as she was, before the Hypnobrai enslaved her, it felt like a memory, she was smiling at him, rustling his hair and comforting him when he needed it, her eyes their normal, chocolate brown.

What really hurt the most of all, was that Kai might never see those eyes ever again. _

"What do you mean she got taken?!" Cole shrieked.

Jay and Zane were finding it difficult to explain this to Cole, because whenever they mentioned the words, "Andrea" "taken" and "Snakes", Cole was on the verge of losing his temper.

"She, um, got hypnotized, or something, we tried to stop it but we were in a net!" Jay cried, trying to sound dramatic, "then she attacked us and then-" Zane cut him off, shaking his head, Jay shut his mouth seeing the look on Coles face.

Cole pulled the bangs of his hair and made a sound almost like a furious roar, Jay and Zane eyed each other anxiously, the earth ninja then turned to them both, steamed, "You just...left her, in the hands of those slithering bastards, you could've saved them you fuckers!"

"Whoa, hey, she was coming at us with the all powerful Staff of Dragons, the fifth golden weapon that can as we learned from last months incident, kill practically _anything_!" Jay exclaimed, gaining his courage to speak. Cole grabbed Jay by the collar, making the blue ninja want to cower in fear, it took Zane to stop Cole from pounding Jay to a pulp. "Guys, none of us is going to make any progress if we just sit here, Andrea is in grave danger, we have to rescue her," he explained.

Cole turned away from them, remembering Kai, now the snakes had two hostages, he felt like all this was his fault, this only made him more guilty, he should've stayed back at the Bounty instead of researching how to become a stupid dragon, now Andrea and Kai were at risk, and him and the other two were stuck down in the most treacherous gorge Ninjago has ever seen!

"Cole?" Zane called, tapping his shoulder, making the earth ninja come to a decision. Cole sighed, letting his hair fall over his eyes, "Go without me..."

The two looked at him as if he were crazy, Jay spat in all seriousness, "What?"

"I said go, without me, you guys will do fine without me," Cole muttered, trying hard not to cry. Zane walked in front of him and studied his expression, he grew worried the earth ninja looked up at the ice ninja, who then asked, "Cole are you feeling alright?"

This made Cole angry, he looked at Zane furiously, "_Why _would I be?" The Nindroid was surprised by his tone of voice, Jay too, but they didn't interrupt him as he continued on. "I spent the whole week in this hellhole, surviving off the best I can, I almost died of illness and becoming food! Now Andrea and Kai are in the hands of the cruelest criminals in all of Ninjago, and you think I'd be ok?!"

"K-Kai...Kai's been captured?" Zane sputtered, shocked.

"No duh!" Cole spat, making the wolves that had followed him look up at him, Jay and Zane finally noticed. Cole's anger continued, "All this didn't pay off, I lost myself, I cant even think!"

Jay tried to speak, "Cole! Cole, calm do-"

"NO JAY! ALL THROUGHOUT THIS WEEK I TRIED TO CALM DOWN, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT?! THATS GOTTEN ME NO WHERE! SO SHUT THE FUCK UP BEFORE I RIP YOUR PIE HOLE OFF!" Cole screamed, silencing the blue ninja. The shouts rang out for miles, and Cole gasped at what he had done, he pulled on his hair and kicked the dirt, almost crying.

Zane and Jay looked at him, worried, Cole was put under so much stress this week, maybe now he needed help. Before Cole could even realize, the two had wrapped him in their arms, Cole's eyes widened, tears seeping out at last. He looked at the two, in shock and in gratefulness, his muscles became less tensed, and his anger washed away almost instantly. When the two finally broke away, Cole just stared up at them in shock, Zane helped him up, smiling.

"We figured you'd wanted that, you seemed so parched," Zane stated, grinning.

Cole sniffled, he wiped away his tears, embarrassed they saw him like that, but he forgot it and simply nodded, admitting it. "Y-Yeah," Cole sputtered, "I needed that..." The two smiled and Jay punched Cole lightly in the shoulder, "Come on, buddy we've got to get those two back!"

Zane stopped him, "How though? We have no reinforcements? Even if we call Nya and Lily, they wont be a match for the Serpentine army."

Cole then remembered, he looked around the corner, remembering a certain someone, he stated, "I think I know someone who can help...besides...I need to talk to him..."

**(Welp! Looks like their gonna have reinforcements really soon, alright, I hope you guys enjoyed this, if it was rushed, just let me know, I take any flames, and any hateful comments as motivation to better up my work, as you can see I'm in a bit of a rush, sorry if this last note wasn't long enough, just want you guys to have a Mermaid Monday! (I tried) Also, thanks for reading!)**


	18. Chapter 17: Army of the Earth

Cole lead Jay, Zane, and his following wolf pack through the darkest parts of the gorge. The paths coming to him, like a map route, he followed his own path and eventually arrived to the cave where Mountain lived. He stared at the opening for a long time, taking a deep breath before entering.

Mountain was home, all curled up in his own corner, when Jay and Zane caught sight of him they nearly froze dead in their tracks at his massive size. Cole, however, approached him slowly. The silent footsteps caught in Mountain's ears, he lifted his head and when he saw Cole, the earth ninja could tell he looked pitiful, and ashamed, this made him hurt more. He cleared his throat, "Mountain...I...I'm so sorry, for the way I treated you back in the stone yard...I shouldn't have yelled, its my fault Kai got taken, because I couldn't make a simple choice..."

Jay and Zane stared at the two uneasy as they listened, the wolves only grew silent at the dragons massive form, obviously scared. But Cole continued, his words truthful when they came out of his mouth, "I just couldn't bare the thought of losing you, even if we hadn't spent much time together...can you forgive me for my stupid outburst...please?"

Mountain eyed Cole with sorry eyes, he then closed them and turned his head, Cole's heart dropped. He sighed and turned to the others, who only looked back at him in sorrow. "Looks like he still hates me, come on guys," Cole stated, dragging them along.

But then he was caught by surprise, he felt himself being lifted up from the ground, a massive tail picking him up. "Whoa, whoa!" he uttered.

"Cole!" Jay yelled, running forward, his weapon ready, Zane following. But instead of a scream, they heard a chortled laugh, Mountain had scooped up Cole to lick him, not hurt him. "Hehe, s-stop it!" Cole giggled.

Jay and Zane eyed each other in confusion, of course, the blue boy spoke, "Uh, Cole? Explain yourself?"

The earth ninja, almost have forgotten his friends were there, instructed Mountain to set him down. Cole wiped off the dragon drool from himself and went over to them, he motioned towards Mountain who began to sniff the two in curiosity. "Guys, this is Mountain, the dragon who helped keep me alive half of the week, and also my personal dragon trainer," Cole explained. The earth dragon sniffed Zane longer, he obviously must have smelled his metal skin, because Mountain soon pulled away making a disgusted face.

Jay however thought Mountain was cool, "Sweet! So what he teach you? How to fly?"

Mountain narrowed his eyes at the "jokester", before deciding to crush him under his massive paw, Jay wheezed, "Get off!" Cole laughed and lifted up Mountain's hand to allow Jay to run, Mountain seemed to chuckle, Cole was happy that he finally was able to apologize, he felt much better now. Well, that was a start, they still had Kai and Andrea to rescue, Cole suddenly frowned, all this, he had survived a gorge, a lethal choice, and still he had not reached his dragon status, if he didn't find it by the time this was all done he was going to scream.

Jay seemed to have read his thoughts because he said, "So you nearly died in a hellhole, and still you haven't managed to turn yourself into a dragon?"

Cole glared at him, "I figured that out myself thanks...no need to remind me."

"Do you think this is a bad sign? Andrea stated the cause for your dreams were because your dragon potential was bound to come soon, still, it has not been reached, is something keeping you from it?" Zane asked. Cole could only cross his arms and try to think about it, "I don't know, Zane...all I know is that none of that matters now, what matters most is that we find a way to rescue the two before the snakes do anything stupid."

Jay looked over to Mountain, "Well, we have our tank." Mountain glared at the nickname, making Jay back away a little, he continued, "Now all we need now is an army..."

"Do the wolves count?" Zane asked, while petting a few of the canines. Cole nodded, "Yeah, sure that counts...but I feel like we need a stronger force..."

Suddenly, the earth began to shake, knocking almost all three of them off balance, Cole glanced outside and saw the ground begin to crack, his eyes widen, "Guys get down!"

They all hit the ground, however, Cole was confused as to why Mountain had not responded to the sudden aftershock, not until it stopped. He helped the others get up, and that's when he saw it, outside of the cave, he spotted at least hundreds, millions of earth dragons crawling out from the earth, he couldn't help but smile, he glanced at the others and they couldn't help but pull a grin.

"Well, we have our army now, now how do you suppose we get Kai and Andrea back?" Jay asked.

Cole smirked, "We break in."


	19. Chapter 18: Author's Note

**I sincerely apologize! I know you guys are expecting another chapter from me, a really good one, but the thing is I cant because I didn't expect my dad to take my computer on a business trip! Also with the amount of homework I'm given, I seem to have lost track of time, writing chapters is not easy and fast ya know. So, I promise, tomorrow, I may or may not update due to lack of time and homework, but if I do, I promise, it will be a good one as much as my creativity can manage, its the part where the rescue happens! As well as Cole's Dragon Potential! What? Too soon? Please let me know in the comments, if I don't answer its because I'm watching cartoons with my brother, again I'm sorry for this, but sometimes I just have to much on my plate. **

** So to all those who hate authors notes, please don't hate on me, its not my fault I have homework, I finished it late, people are different ya know, so its not my fault, either way, again I apologize, I just hope you guys understand, if you do, thank you, if you don't then go jump in a gorge :( meanies, anyway, thanks guys for understanding, I really hope you can forgive me. **

**~A.S**


	20. Chapter 18 & a half: Death by a Friend

The snakes were out like a light, their stomachs stuffed, and their joys fulfilled. They had quite a party last night, and now they could barely stand. However, it wasn't Skales who woke them first, it was the earth, the ground beneath them shook violently, rocks bouncing on the dirt, every snake lifted their heads immediately, the shake of ground alerting signs of an earthquake.

"EARTHQUAKE!" one yelled. Kai woke up, barely able to open his eyes, the earth shook more violently beneath their feet, he was a little curious as to what was going on. "W-What?" he questioned. Skales had awoken soon enough to see them all scattering, he looked with great unpleasantness. "What issss the meaning of thisss?!" he yelled furiously.

"A-An, earthquake! Theresss an earthquake happening!" shrieked one.

Kai got an idea, he could almost smirk, Skales looked at him and growled, getting the same thought, he grabbed his staff and slithered to the mouth of the lair. Down below, he gazed upon to see an army of earth dragons slamming their tails into the wall, causing the aftershock that shook the cliff they were perched on, through the crowd, Skales could get a glimpse of Cole mounted on one of them. He growled, "It'ssss that earth ninja! GET HIM!"

The snakes instantly turned from panicked, to vicious, they grabbed their weapons and went forth into battle, Cole saw the snakes coming, Mountain gave a nervous whine. "Not to worry, Mount, I wont let those bastards hurt you again," Cole whispered. Mountain smirked and gave a loud roar, alerting the snakes of the upcoming dangers. The snakes gulped, but knew if they didn't fight Skales would have them on his wall, so they ignored their coward tactics and went for it. "Looks like the snakes had gotten braver while we were gone, this isn't going to be easy, Cole," Jay stated, drawing out his Nunchuks of Lightning. Cole looked up at the snakes lair, his expression turning grim, "I know, thats why we have to try to keep the upper hand. Zane! Get inside and find Kai and Andrea, we'll take it from down here."

Zane nodded and began to climb on the opposite side, while the snakes were busy. As for Andrea, she had just come out to help the snakes fight when Skales caught her by the shoulder, a smug grin on his face, "Oh no, no my sweet, you come with me." Andrea stared at Skales, due to her trance she followed his demands, the ninja distracted down below. The snakes battled with all their power, but were no match for the strengthening earth dragons, digging tunnels beneath the earth to perform surprise attacks on separate tribe groups. Cole had jumped off of Mountain to join the fight, his spear and scythe raised for battle, Skalidor snuck up to him from behind, or so he thought. "HA!" Cole turned around to face the general, giving him a shock, Skalidor nearly fell over. "Before you decide to sneak on a ninja, you better think twice before your stabbed in the back," Cole teased, giving a slight smirk. Skalidor growled and drew out his double-axe, Cole drew out his own scythe, ready to fight.

Jay was faring better, knocking out snakes, left and right, all in one spin. "NINJAAAA-GO!" an electrifying whirlwind surrounding him in the form of a blue, lightning tornado. The snakes didn't stand a chance, surges running through them faster than a power cable would, Jay stood amongst a mob of wiped out snakes, he smirked. "Well, they don't call me the _ninja of lightning _for nothing," he joked.

Zane managed to make it to the top, climbing up the cliff and walking through the mouth of the snakes cave, he looked around for Kai, but there was nothing but black for miles. "Kai?" he called out. A shadow crept behind him, making Zane freeze in his tracks, he turned around to see nothing, but when he turned he almost got bitten. "YAHHH!" Fangtom jumped out from the shadows, his teeth bared and dripping with poison. Zane glared, "You..."

Fangtom's heads smiled. "Ah, the white ninja," hissed the first, the second began, "come again for a tassste of my medicine, hm?"

Zane drew out his shurikens, his eyes narrowing, "Not really, it leaves an aftertaste even _I _cant endure, stick to biting junk." Fangtom's smiles faded, turning into a foul frown, Zane made the first move, throwing his shurikens at the east wall, ice shot out from every direction, Fangtom hissed at the cold air surrounding them, Zane made a dash by him. "Oh no," hissed the first head, followed by the second, "you don't!" Few fangpyre soldiers jumped out at Zane, their fangs ready to sink into his flesh, the ice ninja gulped and headed the other way, his shuriken returning to him. Fangtom growled, "After him!"

Zane looked all over, but no luck on finding the fire ninja, this was going to be harder than he thought. A fangpyre drone happened to catch up to him, but Zane pushed him off just in time before his teeth could sink into his metal skin. "Not today," he spat. He looked behind him at the hoard of serpents in pursuit, he began to form a plan, an idea struck him. Before the the snakes knew it, Zane vanished. Fangtom scanned the entire cave, his two heads taking everything they could, his first head barking, "Sssearch for him!" The second head finished, "NOW!" His men obeyed and scattered, unknown to them, Zane was on the ceiling, hiding out in the shadows, he couldn't help but smile a bit under his hood. The snakes looked high and low and no sign of the ice ninja, until men started to disappear as well. "What's," Fangtom started, "happening?!" Zane came out of the shadows, his shurikens lashing out at the fangpyre, the blades cutting straight through the sides of his neck, creating fatal cuts. Fangtom gasped and fell, defeated. Zane huffed and saw the blood seep from the wounds, he then heard a choked cry, he froze and heard a familiar voice. "Z-Zane," Kai croaked.

The ice ninja looked at the side of him to see Kai stuck in a spiders web, he was giving a weak smile, Zane ran over and cut him loose, helping him to his feet, "What on earth happened to you?"

"L-Long...story," Kai moaned.

The ice ninja looked around, realizing one was still absent, "Wheres Andrea?" The fire ninja looked back at Zane and gasped, realizing.

As for the battle down on the ground, the place had become a gruesome battlefield of chaos, snakes tying down dragons as they took the skies, Jay knocking out drones and warriors as he went along, Cole beating the hell out of generals, it was war. Jay took out a Venomari, "Jeez! These snakes are getting stronger!"

Cole couldn't help but agree, he cursed and slashed at Acidicus, the Venomari shrieked and fell back, feeling the now permanent cut across his face. Skalidor was already beaten, lying on the ground like a corpse, his men cowered away, digging tunnels underground in retreat, the other tribes however, did not. Mountain breathed rock on a few groups to slow them down but that didn't stop more from coming, he was growing more nervous by the minute, the earth shaking beneath his feet at the war taking place. Jay scanned the area, noticing Zane was not present, "Wheres Zane?!"

"I sent him to look for Kai and Andrea, so we could fare down here, but it doesn't seem like he's found them yet because we sure need the help!" Cole yelled through the cries of battle. Suddenly, a loud blast cut through the air, everyone froze, and dust scattered all over the place, Cole coughed and so did Jay. Some snakes stopped as well, the dragons turning, they would not have believed it if it weren't true. Andrea was there, standing beside Skales, a smug grin spread across his face, Cole's eyes widened upon seeing her. "A-Andrea?" he sputtered. She only looked back at him with no emotion, her eyes crimson and entranced. The earth ninja furiously turned to Skales, "What have you done to her?!"

"Me? Oh, I jusssst sssimply convinced her, the ssside she wasss playing for wassss wrong...itsss the truth isssn't it? She wasss probably bored out of her mind once she came to the team," Skales hissed.

"She was only a member for one week!" Jay shouted, Cole ignored his comment, as well as Skales who looked more confident than before. "Shesss playing for usss now, doesss that bother you, hardhead?" Skales hissed.

Cole grit his teeth and drew his weapon, he was ready for anything, but to his surprise, Skales whispered something to Andrea, and she simply nodded, she then drew out her golden weapon, his eyes widened, recalling the dream. Jay happened to notice too because he looked pretty freaked out himself, "Andrea don't! Don't listen to Skales he's tricking you!"

But Andrea ignored, simply following orders, she lashed out at Cole in full power, her aura bright. Cole did the same, not really wanting to hurt her, but he had not choice, he leapt forth and fought her. Andrea grit her teeth at his quick moves, she did some herself that seemed to strike at Cole leaving some massive bruises. Jay watched anxiously, not sure what to do, Cole was getting beat up by the minute, Andrea was a tough opponent, soon enough he would be on the ground begging for mercy. Jay pounded on Mountain's side, the dragon glared down at him. "What are you doing?! Cole's in trouble and your not going to help him?!" Mountain looked over to Cole and saw, he roared and ran to aid his friend.

Cole slashed at Andrea, no matter how much his arms hurt from so many hits, and Andrea didn't seem to mind at all at the cuts she received, which surprisingly seemed to make her stronger. Cole looked at her, his eyes pitiful, but Andrea could only look back with hatred, she screamed and struck him hard. "GHH," Cole fell back to the blow he received, his knees faltering and his head lightening, one more hit and he would be done. Andrea was about to deliver the final blow, when Mountain jumped in the way to get hit, he let out a loud screech, one that made Cole get on his feet. "NO!" he yelled, running over to him. For a moment, Mountain was dazed, Cole sighed in relief, Mountain was alive, but how? He didn't have time to find out, Andrea had another shot aimed straight for him, and he could only look at her in sadness. "W-What did they do to you?" he stated.

Andrea looked upon him, "I don't answer questions...I only follow orders. Now shut up, as soon as I finish the dragon I'll kill you next." She had her staff aimed, ready to shoot another death blast, but instead of stepping out of the way, Cole stood his ground, he was not about to let Mountain die, if he did, he'd go too. Jay was horrified, "Cole? What are you doing GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

Zane and Kai made it down to see the commotion, they gasped at the sight, Kai screamed, tears reaching his eyes, "COLE NO DON'T!"

But Cole only ignored everything, time stopped, and it only seemed like him and Andrea were alone, ready to end a fight, him standing between death and Mountain, a choice. He closed his eyes.

He chose death.

Andrea released a blast so powerful, it made her fall back. A scream filled the air, Kai running forth, being held back by Zane as tears reached his eyes, the sight before him, it could not be happening. But as he looked, he found himself crying.

Cole was hit.


	21. Chapter 19: Dragon Battle

The burst of energy caused a bask of light to spread, everyone covered their eyes, and once the light faded, they could barely believe their eyes. In Cole's place was a jet black, mighty-looking dragon. Andrea had gotten up in time to see, her eyes transfixed on him, shocked at his transformation. Cole only glared at her, roaring furiously, standing protectively between her and Mountain, who at last became conscious.

The others could only stare in astonishment, some snakes even looked their way in awe. Cole launched himself at Andrea, his fury blinding him, Andrea, being motivated to kill, did the same. They lashed out at one another, their fighting speeds matched and equal, the others could only watch in wonder. Cole slashed at her, Andrea used her staff to block it, the earth ninja shrieked at the weapon's touch, causing powerful surges to rush through him. He looked at Andrea, his eyes focusing, concentrating he breathed rock at her, but Andrea hardly seemed bothered by his paralyzing breath, she gave a smirk. "Fools," she teased, "do you not remember my element is controlling everything in this pitiful universe?"

Cole grit his teeth and charged, his talons sharp and ready to slice, as a matter a fact they got a bit sharpening, nearly peeling the skin off of Andrea's face, she was left with a set of permanent scars. "AGH!" she shrieking, feeling her face, she glared death at the earth ninja, her red hypnotic eyes flaring in anger. Cole could only stare back, his dragon instincts kicking in, making him forget about her being in a trance, portraying her as the enemy. Kai wanted to stop Cole from hurting his sister any further, but Zane kept him back. "Don't," he stated, "Cole will figure it out soon."

Andrea had gotten quite bruised, thanks to Cole, who was now circling her like an angry bull, she was quite cross at him for giving her a set of battle marks, but could only grin. "Not so bad yourself...but do you really think you can defeat me?" Andrea spat. Cole narrowed his eyes, Andrea took for the skies, her dragon form taking over, Cole followed upward, and the two continued to brawl up in the clouds. Cole gained a few scars, but he didn't care, he was doing this for his friends to make ensure they were safe from Andreas maniacal tactics, if it resulted his death, he would take that over his friends own fate any day. Andrea was growing frustrated with the lack of action brought into the fight, so she threw up her staff and flew straight into Cole, knocking him out of the air, the earth ninja shrieked and tried to get loose from her vice-like grip.

The others down below were having trouble catching the action. "Does anyone have binoculars? I gotta see whats happening up there!" Jay shouted.

"Shut it, Jay, this is no time to commentate their battle! My sister could get seriously injured, or Cole, likewise," Kai snapped back.

"Would you two shut it, both are going to end up hurt if we don't do anything about it, come on," Zane motioned them over, Kai and Jay followed the ice ninja, despite their confusion as to what they were doing. The fight in the sky continued, Andrea gaining advantage of Cole as she scratched him across the eye, making him blind for a second. Cole flapped his wings hard, screeching as he felt himself falling from impossible height. Mountain roared anxiously, flapping his good wing, but he knew he couldn't help Cole even if he tried, whatever he did it was pointless unless if it was on the ground. Andrea roared in the earth ninja's face and the two brawled like never before, blood and large bruises resulted out of this fight between them, and if it continued, none of them might make it. Lucky for them, the other three had a plan to end the fighting, they gathered some left over spiders web which held Kai in place as a prisoner to the serpentine, luckily there was enough to make a large net that could maybe catch a whole flock of birds flying south to the winter. "You sure this would work?" Jay asked, stretching out the net.

"Of course it will," snapped Kai, holding the net uneasily, "its a plan made by Zane, its smart enough to actually work making it logical."

"Yeah, but what if Zane doesn't catch the staff in time?" Jay asked, nervously looking up at the Cole and Andrea plummeting. Kai looked down below, if they failed to pull this off, those two will soon be apart of death community. "He has to," he reassured.

As for Zane, he had managed to climb up the highest tree perched on the gorge, just below where the staff might land. He knew catching it with his bare hands would cause him to experience uncontrollable power, that's why he had a fabric sheet with him to help him get a hold of it, from what he saw, light enabled Andrea to get hypnotized, could it be possible the same light could get Andrea _un_-hypnotized?

Now he watched carefully as the two began to plummet from dangerous feet, he hoped to God he'd pull this off, if not, the two would meet their fates and all they had came here for was for nothing, they were depending on him. "I must calculate their landing speed, and their distance, if this works, many deaths will be avoided...lets hope I don't fail," he whispered to himself. So carefully, he spread out the sheet he had into a square, the staff was falling fast, the wind bringing it towards him at fast speed, was it going to land in the right place? Will it be changing direction? It took only Zane to figure it out. The staff missed, but with one daring leap, Zane caught it tightly within the sheet which he quickly wrapped around the golden weapon. "Gotcha," he panted, simply grinning. Now he aimed the staff straight for the entranced universe ninja, but their falling speed was too fast, he couldn't get a clear shot.

Andrea hissed and sunk her teeth into Cole's neck, the earth ninja shrieked and pushed her off, his anger pushed to its limit. He roared loudly, his teeth baring and sharp, he prepared to bite her, but Andrea pounded him away. Kai and Jay saw them almost ready to land into the net, still, Zane had not fired, they became worried. "Why hasn't Zane fired yet?!" Jay shrieked.

"Their falling too fast, I think!" Kai yelled, gazing up nervously. As of for Zane's delay, he was about to shoot when he got an unwelcome visit from Skales, who almost knocked him out of the tree. Zane gasped and held onto the staff, he glared at Skales. "You'll ruin everything!" the Hypnobrai shouted, raising his staff.

Zane threw his shrurikens to blind him with ice, but Skales blocked the chill with the side of his staff, he hissed ferociously and grabbed a hold of the staff of dragons, Zane tugged with great effort, he wasn't about to let a Serpentine cause him to fail. "L-Let...GO!" he yelled.

"Or what? I'm not letting you beat usss, again! Thisss time, Ssssepentine winsss!" Skales hissed. However, what came next was not was Skales counted on, their game of tug of war for the staff caused it to fire a beam of immense light, Zane watched in horror, and Skales could almost scream.

The beam hit Andrea, she shrieked and closed her eyes, now spinning out of control. Her uncontrollable coordination made her ram into Cole, which made him come to his senses. He saw that Andrea was in danger and so he grabbed her carefully with his four front legs and spread his wings to create a softer landing. Gliding downward, he brought them safely down to the ground. Kai and Jay looked at each other. "Well, what a waste of spiders web," Jay stated, upset.

Skales cursed, turning to teach Zane a lesson, only to find he was already gone.

Kai and Jay made their way down to meet up with Cole, who nudged the unconscious Andrea he laid softly on the ground. When she didn't respond, Cole felt himself come to tears, the others looked anxiously, refusing to believe Andrea was gone. Cole lowered his head, only to find himself being hit against the wall by Skales, who looked redder than Kai's ninja garb. "Fool!" he snarled, hitting Cole again, making him screech, "You've ruined everything!"

Skales rammed Cole against the wall, whilst using the hilt of his staff, the earth ninja struggled with great effort, his chest heaving and his breath shortening. Kai wanted to run in and teach Skales a lesson, but Zane kept him back. "Foolsss, you think defeating me would be that easssy?! You've seen nothing! NOTHING!" Skales screamed.

Cole found himself begin to bleed, the scratches and cuts from the past few days still exposed, along with the new ones that came to show. Skales gazed disgustingly upon him, seeing the earth ninja could not take it anymore, he was prepared to put him out of his misery, but was stopped by a strong force. Andrea wedged her staff between his, the Hypnobrai staff went immediately flying, away from the general's grip, Skales gazed upon the girl with hatred, she only stared back. "Think twice, before believing I will ever j-join to your side, bastards," she croaked, her face scarred and beat up. Skales backed away, but Andrea refused to let him slip, she planted her staff into the ground, an earthquake starting, opening up beneath the Hypnobrai, bringing him to the depths of the underworld, the earth closed up at Andreas commands, after they'd heard enough of Skales screams. Andrea made her way over to Cole, he smiled weakly at her, only she could stare grimly at him. "I apologize, severely, I should've avoided their gaze," she muttered.

Cole gave a crooked smile, managing to choke out a few words, "I-Its...n-not...your...f-fault...A-Andrea..."

Finally, his legs gave in, Cole hit the ground, the others gasped and ran over to his aid, even Mountain ran over to make sure his friend was ok, Andrea could only place her hand on top of Cole's snout, and mouth the words, _I'm sorry _over and over again, she felt ashamed...

This was all her fault.

**(Ooh, a cliffhanger! Another one I suppose, sad as it is though, its almost time for this episode to end, but not to worry, the next one is bound to be a good one, also, its not quite finished yet so hold your horses! Also, it seems Andrea has finally snapped out of her hypnotic trance, a good thing too, and yes! Cole finally reached his dragon potential! Congratulations to him! Woohoo! Ah, I knew he'd find it someday, anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I hope it met your requirements, anyway, I gotta wrap this up, its kinda late over her, so until next time, have a Frilly Friday, guys, and thanks for reading)**


	22. Chapter 20: Back Home

Cole woke up in Destiny's Bounty.

At first he was dumbfounded, yet at the same time, confused, how'd he get here? He took in his surroundings, technically he was in the guys room, on his bed, he felt something cool on his forehead. Taking it off he saw it was a wet rag, he almost forgot he had a fever. Cole winced while sitting up, clutching his head, his nausea returning to him, how much injuries did he get? Or...did he get any at all? A frightening thought struck him, had the days in the gorge been a dream? Did that mean he never reached his dragon status, or met Mountain, or helped fight against the Serpentine?

Before his fears could confirm themselves, Cole felt himself get tackled by a creature, he toppled over the bed, crying out, but letting it drown out once he saw. Mountain smiled widely at him, his tongue hanging out of his mouth like a dog, Cole could barely speak, all of it had been real, he _had _reached his dragon potential, and he had brought the Serpentine to justice. Mountain licked his master, Cole laughed, "S-Stop, s-stooop! Hahahha! Heh, I'm glad to see you too..."

The others came to his mind almost immediately, he gasped and got up, looking out the open window, to meet the view of outside, Jay, Zane, and Kai were all playing out in the fields, well, really, Jay was playing fetch with Kai who pretended to do everything he said, like a dog. "Fetch, Kai, fetch!" Jay teased. Kai rolled his eyes and breathed flames, Jay screeched and began to run around, calling for water, it took Zane to sort of put out the fire, accidentally freezing his entire face, Jay's head brought him down like a rock, Kai couldn't stop laughing.

"I see, you like the view," a voice called.

Cole turned to see Andrea at the door, along with Sensei, his staff tightly gripped in his hand. One look at her, and Cole instantly knew he did something wrong. "W...What happened to you?" Cole asked, anxious.

Andrea rubbed her arms, hiding her melancholy expression, "Rough fight..." The earth ninja, knew he was the cause of this, he sighed. Sensei came over to him, Cole looked at his teacher. "We've missed our leader," Sensei stated, grimly.

Cole shrugged, "It couldn't have been..._that _long, could it?" Wu chuckled, "Cole, I admire your courage, especially since you've had to face the dangers of survival, has it made you learn anything?"

"Do not jump into dark pits, or you'll end up in hell of a lotta pain," Cole stated, making the Sensei laugh, "I see this, challenge has brought you to your dragon potential, and for that, I say you've learned a lot while down there, not just how to hunt, but how to make the right choices, even if you've made a few mistakes."

The earth ninja smiled humbly, he bowed, "Thank you, Sensei."

Wu nodded, and turned, he stroked Andreas hair before leaving, then leaved them alone to talk. For a moment, there was awkward silence between them, until Andrea decided to break it at last, "So...anything else you encountered down there?"

"I...I, well, its kind of hard to describe, it was pretty complicated to get around down there I forgot to check," Cole stated. Andrea chuckled and sat herself next to him on his bed, making him plant himself down next to her, Cole blushed, then turned away quickly to hide it, making her confused. "You ok, rocky?" she asked.

Cole hesitated, "I...I...I just..."

Andrea sighed, "Look...I know your still upset about the whole, battle, but really, I should be the one apologizing, I shouldn't have let myself get entranced, I shouldn't have left you back there! I-"

Cole shushed her, his heart beating twice as fast, Andrea grew silent, gazing into his amber eyes. "I know how you feel, part of that was my fault as well...and I, I'd have to say I'm sorry too," Cole stated, grimly. Andrea frowned, "No...no, you're not the one to blame, Cole...you didn't attack your friends blindly with the most powerful weapon of Ninjago, because you couldn't even dodge a beam of light."

"First off, I wouldn't be able to because I cant hold the staff, genius," Cole joked, making Andrea laugh a bit. She then silenced herself and rubbed her arms, again avoiding his gaze, but Cole brought up her chin to meet his face, and the two stared at one another for a long amount of time. "Andrea, listen, none of this is your fault, and I promise you that, please don't beat yourself for this, it was my responsibility to protect you and everyone else, although we were both taught the ways to fight, I had to have your back, I cant imagine what I'd do if you got hurt on my watch," Cole said.

Andrea frowned, but Cole wasn't finished, "So please, before you go pointing at yourself to blame, hear me out and believe that the past few days was not out of your own hand, but by mine. I survived, you and the others are safe, and that's important."

The universe ninja cracked a smile and simply looked away, hiding her enthrallment, Cole awaited her answer, hoping she wasn't too disappointed with him. Instead, Andrea looked Cole in the eyes and forgave, "Alright, then...Cole, I forgive you..."

Cole smiled, happy, yet still a bit grim inside. Andrea however, made it instantly vanish, "But promise me, the next time we go chasing for snakes, please make sure it isn't near some dark pit?"

The earth ninja chuckled, "Promise."

Mountain moved his head under Andrea's hand, she smiled and pet his snout, "Well hello cutie."

"His names, Mountain, I found him in the gorge, and well, lets just say we bonded," Cole explained.

"I see," Andrea stated, continuing to pet Mountain's head, her eyes taking in all his details, especially his snagged wing, her mouth dropped, "oh my god, what happened to you, you poor thing?" She knelt down and held out Mountain's bad wing, examining it from inch to inch, she looked up at Cole, "Do you know anything about this?"

"All I know is that I found him this way, something tells me Mount's been in that gorge for a long time," Cole replied. Andrea pouted and stroked the dragons back, it purred and made himselfself comfortable under her careful touch, as she stroked him calmly. Once Mountain had been lulled to sleep, Andrea stood up and pulled Cole out of his bed, he had a bit trouble to stand since his leg was still a bit too sore, he winced. "Oops, sorry, your leg still hurt?" Andrea asked.

"Yeah...urgh...wolf nearly tore it off," Cole replied, sitting back down again. He gazed outside to the others again, Andrea joining him, she noticed Kai flying through the sky in dragon form, a smile plastered upon her face, "You know...you can turn into a dragon now...you up for some flying?"

Andrea dashed to the door, and challenged him, "Because I'll beat you any day in the air."

Cole smirked, "Your on!"

Andrea laughed and ran, Cole followed her in excitement.

In the corner, where the prophecy lay, words of gold began to write themselves onto the parchment, spelling out another sentence.

_The earth is tamed, two dragons are named, now the sky is next in line_

_Lightning strikes, danger spikes _

_Evil has a chance to dine_

_The play on words, his life reserves_

_Lightning is not fine_

**(Oh crap! Looks like Jay's next! Man the prophecy must be magic or something! All in all, things will get pretty interesting in the next episode, sadly, I'll have to say this is the last chapter, but the epilogue I shall write tomorrow! Its bound to foreshadow some parts of the next episode, but you'll have to pay attention...hehehe. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, it seems love is in the air, but right now, Andrea only cares for Cole as a friend, bad luck for the ole earth ninja, how can he find a way to win her heart? We might find the answer soon throughout these season, be sure to check back for updates! Now if you excuse moi, I shall wrap this up, like so...have a Cinco de Mayo Saturday guys! (I've got Mexican stuff in my head, I just came back from seeing The Book of Life, it was AWESOME) Thanks for reading guys!)**


	23. Chapter 21: Epilogue

Pythor slithered amongst the fallen Serpentine that littered the ground before him, his eyes gazing upon them in disgust.

Skales rose from the earth, barely able to hang on any longer, but as he reached the surface he met the angry eyes of the Anocandrai, his confidence fading as quickly. "P-Pythor! I-I...uh," he sputtered.

Skales hesitated, Pythor couldn't even bring himself to speak, he was bewildered at the tribes that lay before him, his expression was indescribable. "I, I-" Skales began.

"You failed," Pythor stated, rude in tone. Skales bit his tongue, unable to cope with how frightened he felt, "W-We ssssseemed to have quite a delay, with the imprissssonment, please underssstand-"

"I should've known the plan was only used to stall time, foolish of me to actually trust you! Now it'll take weeks before my men get back on their feet! You've cost us everyt-"

He paused, catching the sight of something on the ground, he picked it up to have it be a black scale, his eyes widen, the flames of his anger being stoked further. "There was another TRANSFORMATION?!" he shrieked. Skales gulped, Pythor grabbed the Hypnobrai by the neck, his eyes turning crimson red, signalling his fury, and for a moment Skales actually believed he was done for. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS YOU-GHH! THE NINJA GAIN STRENGTH, YOU LET THEM GAIN MORE POWER YOU IMBECILE! UGH, IF ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE BLOKES TURN I'LL!"

He stopped himself, a brilliant thought coming to him, his foul snare turning into a wicked grin, he dropped Skales, allowing the Hypnobrai to breathe. Pythor paced around, deep in thought, the plan was just so simple, more logical, unlike what Skales had come up with. "Why...yes, let them transform," Pythor hissed.

"W-What?" Skales gasped. Pythor chuckled, "Skales, Skales...there is something you need to understand about the origins of reformation, one cannot simply be born again if not ready, also one without power is sure to crumble, weaken, and remain utterly useless. All this time, we've been looking at it wrong, instead of trying to stop them, we let them transform, to gain their powers and strength, for our own needs, leaving them to nothing but weakened states of mind."

Skales was about to speak, but Pythor cut in, his furious mood returning, "and _this _time, be smart or I'll have you used as a Christmas ornament, or a decorating for my wall."

For once, Skales kept his mouth shut.

Bad times are close, and things will only get worse for the ninja.


End file.
